"At the end of the day, boys, you don't tell me how rough the water is, you bring in the ship." – Steve Stone
A Goat Riders Affiliate
Go Cubs!

Wrigley Rooftop Directory
Ryne Sandberg Fan Page
The Cubdom Photo Gallery
The Cubs Prayer
Cubs Calendar
Jim Hendry Page
Cubs Ownership History
Baseball Business Essays
TheCubdom Hall of Cubs


Recent Blog Updates

Editor's Pick:

Goat Riders of the Apocalypse
Bleed Cubbie Blue
Desipio Media Ventures
Hire Jim Essian!
Cub Reporter
Ivy Chat
Cub Town
Ghost of Paul Noce
The Cubdom
Thunder Matt's Saloon
View From the Bleachers
Cubby-Blue
WGN-TV Baseball Blog

Honorable Mention:

A Hundred Next Years
A League of Her Own
Agony and Ivy
Bad News Cubs
Baseball Diamond News
Boys of Spring
Bush League Times
Chicago Cubs Baseball
Chicago Cubs Blog
Chicago Cubs Online
Church of Baseball
Clark & Addison blog
College of Idiots
Cubs f/x
Cubs Hot Stove
Cubs Hub
CubsNet.com
Cubs Obsession
Five Outs to go
Gonfalon Cubs
Kosuke Fukodome
Lollygaggers
Out of Right Field
The Cubs Brickyard
The Other Fifteen
The Ted Lilly Fan Club
Temporary Bleachers
TheCubsfan.com
Wrigleyville23

Newbies:

Cubbie Nation
Holy Cow Bell
Ivy Envy
Towel Drills
Turning Two
Wasting away in Wrigleyville

Soldiering On:

Die-hard Cubs Fun
Fire Dusty Baker
Northside Lounge
Peoria Northsider Report
Yarbage Cub Review

Cubs Sites:

Desipio Boards
North Side Baseball
Cubscast.com
Inside the Ivy
The Heckler
My Wrigleyville

Just Read 'em!

Baseball Analysts
Baseball Musings
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Think Factory
Hardball Times

Conglomerates

Baseball Toaster
Most Valuable Network
SportsBlog Nation

NL Central

Brew Crew Ball MIL
Bucs Dugout PIT
Crawfish Boxes HOU
Get Up Baby STL
Honest Wagner PIT
Red Hot Mama CIN
Red Reporter CIN
Viva El Birdos STL

NL East

Amazin Avenue NYM
Citizens Blog PHI
Federal Baseball WAS
Fish Stripes FLA
The Good Phight PHI
Sabernomics ATL

NL West

6-4-2 LAD, LAA
AZ Snake Pit AZ
Dodger Thoughts LAD
Ducksnorts SD
Gas Lamp Ball SD
McCovey Chronicles SF
Only Baseball Matters SF
Purple Row COL

AL East

Batters Box TOR
Bronx Banter NYY
Camden Chat BAL
DRays Bay TB
Futility Infielder NYY
Joy of Sox BOS
Over the Monster BOS
Pinstripe Alley NYY
Replacement Level Yankees Weblog NYY

AL Central

Aaron's Baseball Blog MIN
Bless You Boys DET
Let's Go Tribe CLE
Royals Review KC
South Side Sox CHW
Sox Machine CHW
Tiger Blog DET
Twins Geek MIN

AL West

Athletics Nation OAK
Halo's Heaven LAA
Lone Star Ball TEX
Lookout Landing SEA
USS Mariner SEA

Miscellany

Beyond the Boxscore
Minor League Ball

Chicago Sports

Blog-A-Bull
Section 8 Fire
Windy City Gridiron Bears

News Sources

Chicagosports.com
Cubs.com
MLB.com
Sun-Times Cubs
Daily Herald Sports
Daily Southtown Sports
BaseballReference.com

2005 Forbes MLB Franchise Valuations Released

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Forbes Magazine has released its 2005 Major League Baseball Team Valuations.

The 2005 Forbes estimate of MLB Franchise Values.

The Cubs come in at number 6 this year, valued at $398 million. This represents a 14% increase from last year.

The Yankees are estimated to have the highest value at $950 million. The Red Sox are next at $563 million. The Mets, Dodgers, and Mariners round out the top 5.

The largest increase in value belongs to the Washington Nationals. Their move to Washington from Montreal resulted in a 114% increase in franchise value. The Phillies had the next largest increase, 39%, and are now ranked as the seventh most valuable franchise.

Of the top ten franchises by value, the National League ranks seven teams while the AL only has three. The ten franchises valued lowest includes six AL teams and four NL teams. The AL secured the bottom four spots in Kansas City ($187 M), Oakland ($185 M), Minnesota ($178 M), and Tampa Bay ($176 M).

Across the boards, franchise values are up. The only team that Forbes estimates lost value is the Oakland Athletics (-1%). This is probably due in part to tax depreciation changes over the offseason.

In addition to valuing the franchises, Forbes also assigns debt/value ratios. The Diamondbacks supposedly have 103% of their value in debt, and the Dodgers are almost as highly leveraged at 99%. Forbes reports that the Blue Jays have no debt, which makes me wonder what Forbes considers debt? Other teams with low levels of debt include the Braves (8%), Cubs (10%), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (10%), and the White Sox (11%). It is interesting to me that the three teams with the least debt are the three teams with corporate ownership (Jays, Braves, and Cubs).

The revenue numbers Forbes reports range from $80 M (Montreal/Washington) to $264 M (Yankees). The Yankees had $53 M more in revenues than the next closest team, the Red Sox. The Cubs came in sixth by extracting $170 million from their fan base.

Finally, the most controversial numbers are the profit figures. According to Forbes, 20 teams turned operating profits last year, led by the Orioles who supposedly earned $34 M. Additionally, The Indians, Devil Rays, Brewers, and Reds are all said to have earned over $20 M.

The Cubs are estimated to have earned $11.4 million in operating profit during 2004.

Ten teams lost money due to operations. This group was led by the Yankees who lost $37.1 M. The Angels also are estimated to have lost $30 M in Arte Moreno's first year as owner.

Of the ten teams who reportedly lost money, 6 of those teams made the playoffs in 2004. Only the Astros ($9.6 M) and Braves (15.4 M) made both the playoffs and a profit.

In contrast, four of the six last placed teams turned a profit, although the Diamondbacks sustained heavy losses (-$18.7 M).

These numbers are all estimates by Forbes. As best I know, they have not seen the teams' books or attempted to uncover accounting shenanigans, which I guarantee are being played. In essence, these numbers are meaningfully meaningless.

Posted by Byron at April 12, 2005 1:03 AM | Bookmark and Share | BallHype: hype it up!
Subscribe to The Cubdom - get emails with the latest Cubs info and pictures

This post has been tagged:


AddThis Feed Button

Get The Cubdom email updates


Search

Google
Web
TheCubdom.com

eXTReMe Tracker
Since Mar 18, 2004

Recent Entries


Monthly Archives



Cubs Sale Articles

© 2004 – 2015 Byron Clarke
legal - about thecubdom.com - site index