Royals rank near bottom of Forbes’ 2021 valuations of Major League Baseball teams
The Kansas City Royals moved up one slot in Forbes’ annual valuation of Major League Baseball teams, but they are still near the bottom of the list.
Heading into the 2021 season, Forbes placed the Royals’ value at $1.060 billion, which is 28th in baseball. The Royals jumped over the Tampa Bay Rays ($1.055 billion). The Marlins remained the only team whose value hasn’t reached the $1 billion level ($990 million).
The Royals’ 3% increase in valuation ($1.025 billion a year ago) was behind only the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Braves and Cubs, Forbes noted.
An ownership group led by John Sherman bought the Royals from David Glass for $1 billion following the 2019 season.
“An absence of fans at ballparks and an unusually short 60-game schedule in 2020 led to big losses for the sport,” Forbes’ Steve Ozanian wrote. “All told, MLB’s 30 teams lost $1.8 billion (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) versus a profit of $1.5 billion in 2019. Revenue fell 65%, to $3.66 billion.
“Still, revenue will increase for all 30 teams beginning next season when MLB’s new national media deals kick in. Thus far, the league is set for a 19% annual average increase from 2022 through 2028. But Walt Disney’s ESPN did not take as many games in the new deal as it did in the current one. Thus, MLB still has considerable inventory to sell, including weekday exclusives, perhaps to Amazon or Google’s YouTube.”
Forbes showed the Royals had $109 million in revenue, but said the team had a net operating loss of $37 million a year ago.
The top valued team in Major League Baseball is the Yankees at $5.25 billion, followed by the Dodgers and Red Sox.
You can read the Forbes story here, and this is the full list of teams.
Team valuations (in millions)
1. Yankees, $5,250
2. Dodgers, $3,570
3. Red Sox, $3,465
4. Cubs, $3,360
5. Giants, $3,175
6. Mets, $2,250
7. Cardinals, $2,245
8. Phillies, $2,050
9. Angels, $2,025
10. Nationals, $1,925
11. Braves, $1,875
12. Astros, $1,870
13. Rangers, $1,785
14. White Sox, $1,680
15. Blue Jays, $1,675
16. Mariners, $1,630
17. Padres, $1,500
18. Orioles, $1,430
19. Twins, $1,325
20. Diamondbacks, $1,320
21. Rockies, $1,300
22. Pirates, $1,285
23. Tigers, $1,260
24. Brewers, $1,220
25. Indians, $1,160
26. A’s, $1,125
27. Reds, $1,085
28. Royals, $1,060
29. Rays, $1,055
30. Marlins, $990
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 10:14 AM.
