Yanks Now Worth $1.5 Billion

No wonder they don't care if those tickets aren't selling.... Forbes has published their annual list of baseball's most valuable teams, the Yankees topped the list, coming in at $1.5 billion. Here's more from Michael K. Ozanian and Kurt Badenhausen:

No one is getting richer faster than the No. 1-ranked New York Yankees, whose value shot up 15% this year to $1.5 billion. The Bronx Bombers pulled in $80 million--by far the most in baseball--from their rights fee with the YES Network in 2008 and moved into the most lucrative stadium in baseball this season. (Full disclosure: Forbes has a show on the YES Network.) The new stadium also means the Yankees will have to hand over a lower percentage of their revenue to rivals.

Yes, the team's stadium revenue--tickets, suites, advertising, concessions--is likely to go up by more than $100 million this season. But MLB permits teams to deduct stadium-operating and debt expenses from revenue before calculating the amount the league will take from them to subsidize other teams. Last season the Yankees had to hand over $95 million to the league so it could be distributed to teams like the Florida Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays. In the new stadium the Yankees' deductible expenses will be around $100 million, enough to wipe out the windfall in revenue.

The New York Mets were ranked second at $912 million, and they saw their value increase by 11% this year. Here's the rest of the top ten:

- Boston Red Sox: $833 million
- Los Angeles Dodgers: $722 million
- Chicago Cubs: $700 million
- Los Angeles Angels: $509 million
- Philadelphia Phillies: $496 million
- St. Louis Cardinals: $486 million
- San Francisco Giants: $471 million
- Chicago White Sox: $450 million

While the Yankees are the most valuable, they're were not the most profitable last year. Actually came in in the red at -$3.7 million. The Detroit Tigers, obviously hit by the hard times facing the city of Detroit, lost $26.3 million last year. The most profitable team was Florida Marlins, who brought in $43.7 million. Here's the rest of the top ten most profitable teams:

- Washington Nationals: $42.6 MM
- Chicago Cubs: $29.7 MM
- Tampa Bay Rays: $29.4 MM
- Baltimore Orioles: $27.2 MM
- Minnesota Twins: $26.8 MM
- Oakland Athletics: $26.2 MM
- Boston Red Sox: $25.7 MM
- Colorado Rockies: $24.5 MM
- New York Mets: $23.5 MM

And here's a list of the ten teams whose overall value decreased in the last year:

- Washington Nationals: $406 million, down 12%
- Atlanta Braves: $446 million, down 10%
- Seattle Mariners: $426 million, down 9%
- Detroit Tigers: $371 million, down 9%
- San Francisco Giants: $471 million, down 5%
- Houston Astros: $445 million, down 4%
- Cleveland Indians: $399 million, down 4%
- Texas Rangers: $405 million, down 2%
- Oakland Athletics: $319 million, down 1%
- Pittsburgh Pirates: $288 million, down 1%