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Yankees tops in value, too
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May 17, 1999: 2:34 p.m. ET
'98 World Series champs nab No. 1 spot in Forbes ranking of Major League teams
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The New York Yankees, baseball's most storied franchise and 1998 World Series champions, were also the most valuable team in the nation last year, a study by Forbes magazine reported.
The nation's pastime wasn't profitable for nearly half of Major League Baseball teams last year, the magazine reported, but the two new franchises -- the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays -- rounded the bases impressively in 1998.
The Diamondbacks tallied $22.5 million in operating profit and the Devil Rays generated $20.6 million.
In the No. 2 spot in terms of value, which Forbes calculated based on its own formula, were the Cleveland Indians (CLEV), the only publicly traded team in the majors.
Forbes valued the Yankees at $491 million, while the Indians, put on the auction block last week, were said to be worth $359 million. The formula Forbes used to determine team value included revenues, stadium, debt and city demographics.
Rounding out the top 10 were the Atlanta Braves, which are owned by CNNfn parent Time Warner (TWX), the Baltimore Orioles, the Colorado Rockies, the Diamondbacks, the Texas Rangers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets.
The Dodgers, Red Sox and Mets, however, posted operating losses of $11.7 million, $7.6 million and $5.2 million respectively last year, due in part to the league's revenue sharing plan.
That plan requires the best cash-generating teams to contribute to the least cash-churning -- and that meant the top 13 teams paid $100 million to the lowest 15 franchises.
Among the factors for profitability, Forbes said, were the size of the media market, local TV contracts and, increasingly, whether a team played in a new stadium.
Commissioner Bud Selig has appointed a panel of advisers -- including former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Paul Volcker -- to examine how revenue should be shared.
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