The New York Yankees are the most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball, worth $5.25 billion by FORBES count last year. But the owners of the team have not stayed in the big leagues: Yankee Global Enterprises also has interests in reigning MLS champion New York City FC, YES Network and Legends Hospitality, which works with sports and entertainment organizations and venues in areas such as hospitality, associations, concessions and merchandise, and has a small equity interest in the Professional Fighters League, an MMA promotion. The additional holdings bring the total value of the company’s sports properties to $6.81 billion.
The story of AMB Group, owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS’s Atlanta United, is similar. Also that of the golf retailer PGA Tour Superstore. Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s portfolio includes the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics, as well as investments in esports and a regional sports network for digital, mobile and OTT platforms that had combined revenues of $500 million before the pandemic, according to Monumental Owner Ted Leonsis. And by dint of his league’s investments, several sports ownership groups in MLB, the NFL and the NBA have a piece of Fanatics, the sports merchandising, licensing, trading card and NFT giant run by Michael Rubin.
These Sporting empires are more valuable than ever. And the one who leads them? Liberty Media. Liberty has full ownership of the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves and the team’s mixed-use real estate project, as well as the Formula 1 car racing promotion, and has minority interests in the Drone Racing League, the Meyer Shank auto racing team and the Kroenke Arena Company (owner of Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche). Total Enterprise Value: $17.2 billion, a 32% increase from last year, driven by big gains in revenue and operating income (meaning earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the Braves and Formula 1 during the past year.
Investors can easily bet on Liberty sports assets by following stocks, but private sports empires are also attracting smart money. Investors believe they have a huge advantage, not only because investments in sports teams have typically generated superior returns over stocks, but also because the companies and people behind the sports giants have a proven track record of scaling through their collection. equipment and media, technology, gaming, retail, and real estate.
That’s certainly what RedBird Capital and Arctos Sports Partners were thinking when they bought stakes in Fenway Sports Group last year. Ditto Silver Lake Partners’ $500 million investment in City Football Group two years ago. And with private equity recently entering the fray after sports leagues changed their ownership rules to open their doors to Wall Street, the money that flows will make sports empires even bigger.
This year, we have expanded our ranking of sports empires from 20 to 25. Comparing this year’s top 20 to last year’s list shows an increase in business value added of 22%, from 102 billion dollars to 124 billion dollars. Much of the increase has to do with new media deals that lift team values in the NFL and NHL. For example, in December, Fenway Sports Group paid about $900 million for the Pittsburgh Penguins, almost nine times what Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle paid for the NHL team in 1999. The 10% annualized price appreciation of The Penguins was 64% better than the rise in the S&P 500 stock index over the same period.
Debuting on the list this year with a stir is Shahid Khan, who followed up his purchase of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 with the acquisition of Fulham FC two years later.. The purchase of the English soccer team also gave Khan several acres of incredibly valuable real estate. Then in 2019, Khan launched the All Elite Wrestling professional wrestling promotion, run by his son, Tony. Add it all up, and Khan’s empire ranks 12th at $4.8 billion, a figure that will no doubt rise as the land develops.
Nobody in sports has taken advantage of real estate better than Jerry Jones. The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, whose empire ranks fourth at $8.85 billion, spent about $1.5 billion on the Star, the NFL team’s home and practice facility that includes the Ford Center, which hosts events ranging from gymnastics to Sesame Street Live. The 91-acre campus also has no shortage of places to shop and eat. The project is now worth around $2 billion, according to experts.
Partnering with another team, even one outside the US, has helped the York family, owners of the San Francisco 49ers, to increase the value of their empire to $4.31 billion from $3.76 a year ago. By linking up with Leeds United, the 49ers not only gained a 44% stake in an English soccer team whose value has more than tripled, to $470 million, since 2018, when the Yorks first bought it, but also they found a way to expand their brand overseas at a time when the NFL grants international commercial rights to its teams. The deal has also worked very well for Leeds.
Here are the 25 most valuable sports empires.
1. Liberty Media
Value: $17.20 billion
Properties: Atlanta Braves, Fórmula 1, Drone Racing League, Kroenke Arena Company, Meyer Shank Racing*
Key people: John Malone (Chairman), Greg Maffei (Chairman and CEO)
2. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
Value: $10.54 billion
Properties: Los Angeles Rams, Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Arsenal FC, inversiones en esports, Colorado Rapids, Colorado Mammoth, Altitude Sports and Entertainment, Kroenke Arena Company
Key person: Stan Kroenke (President)
3. Fenway Sports Group
Value: $9.81 billion
Properties: Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing*, NESN, Fenway Sports Management, Pittsburgh Penguins, bienes raíces
Key people: John Henry (principal owner), Tom Werner (president)
4. Jerry Jones
Value: $8.85 billion
Properties: Dallas Cowboys, Legends Hospitality*, The Star, Complexity Gaming
5. Madison Square Garden Sports
Value: $7.84 billion
Properties: New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Counter Logic Gaming, Hartford Wolf Pack
Key person: James Dolan (CEO)
6. Yankee Global Enterprises
Value: $6.81 billion
Properties: New York Yankees, Legends Hospitality, YES Network, New York City FC*, minor league baseball teams
Key person: Hal Steinbrenner (CEO and President)
7. Family power
Value: $5.88 billion
Properties: New England Patriots, New England Revolution, UFC, Kraft Analytics Group, DraftKings, Skillz*, Boston Uprising
8. Familia Glazer
Value: $5.84 billion
Properties: Manchester United, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
9. Paul G. Allen Foundation
Value: $5.69 billion
Properties: Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Sounders*
10. City Football Group
Value: $5.00 billion
Properties: Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC
11. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Value: $4.98 billion
Properties: Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto FC, Toronto Argonauts, Toronto Marlies
12. Shahid Kan
Value: $4.80 billion
Properties: Jacksonville Jaguars, Fulham FC, All Elite Wrestling
13. Familia Benson
Value: $4.35 billion
Properties: New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Pelicans
14. York Family
Value: $4.31 billion
Properties: San Francisco 49ers, Leeds United FC, Elevate Sports Ventures
15. Dan Snyder
Value: $4.20 billion
Properties: Washington Football Team
16. Familia Johnson
Value: $4.05 billion
Properties: New York Jets
17. AMB Group
Value: $3.65 billion
Properties: Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United, PGA Tour Superstore
Key person: Arthur Blank (presidente)
18. Buss Family Trust
Value: $3.63 billion
Properties: LA Lakers
19. Guggenheim Baseball Management
Value: $3.54 billion
Properties: Los Angeles Dodgers, Spectrum SportsNet LA
Key person: Mark Walter (CEO)
20. Jeffrey Lurie
Value: $3.50 billion
Properties: Philadelphia Eagles
21 Esteban Ross
Value: $3.45 billion
Properties: Miami Dolphins, Drone Racing League*, Champions Cup, Miami Open
22. Steve Ballmer
Value: $3.35 billion
Properties: Los Angeles Clippers, The Forum
23. Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment
Value: $3.33 billion
Properties: Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, New Meta Entertainment, Elevate Sports Ventures, HBSE Ventures, Utica Comets
Key people: Josh Harris (Managing Partner), David Blitzer (Co-Managing Partner)
24. Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Value: $3.32 billion
Properties: Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, aXiomatic Gaming, NBC Sports Washington, Monumental Sports Network, Sportradar*
Key person: Ted Leonsis (socio gerente)
25. Tepper Sports & Entertainment
Value: $3.31 billion
Properties: Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC
Key person: David Tepper (owner)
The * indicates ownership is 50% or less.
Methodology
To compile our scorecard of the most valuable sports empires, we combed through our database of the most valuable teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and soccer to find individuals or companies whose holdings in these teams exceeded $2 billion. Dollars. For MLS team values, we rely primarily on Sportico. For other sports-related assets included in the empires, we spoke with owners, analysts and industry experts.
Only individuals or entities with a controlling interest in at least one team were eligible. Therefore, Barcelona, the most valuable soccer team in the world at $4.76 billion, was excluded from our list of empires because the Spanish soccer team is owned by more than 140,000 club members. Similarly, Michael Rubin and Fanatics are excluded from our list, despite their minority holdings in sports teams and the company’s dominance in sportswear marketing.
We include business values only for the most valuable parent company or managing partner of sports-related assets. For example, the teams owned by Joshua Harris and David Blitzer are included in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, but Blitzer’s ownership of MLS’s Real Salt Lake is separate from HBSE and therefore excluded from the full valuation.
We use corporate securities, which include debt. This differs from FORBES net worth estimates for individuals, which are net of debt.
