My friend and I have been arguing about this so I’m hoping someone can clear it up. I say that the most sports franchise worth the most money is the New York Yankees. He says it’s the Manchester United soccer team. Are either of us right or is there an even more valuable team?
No idea, but I’ll throw a third team in the mix: How about Ferrari F1?
(Note: I’m talking about just the F1 team and not the auto company as a whole.)
I think it’s Manchester United, even though I loathe them with a visceral, bile-filled passion.
Their merchandise has been flung to the four corners of the globe, further than the New York Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys. Their TV contracts rake in incredible cash. It goes on.
Aren’t they owned by Rupert Murdoch?
Man U is owned by British Sky Broadcasting, which is part of Murdoch’s empire. The Los Angeles Dodgers are owned by News Corp., which is a different satrapy of Murdoch.
The Yankees are now part of a very big cable TV enterprise and I believe are owned by something called YankeeNets. Strange that the most successful baseball team would throw in with one of the least successful basketball teams.
I may be wrong, but I once heard that the, believe it or not, the NY Giants is the most valuable (or maybe lucrative) sports team. Can’t say if that “fact” applied worldwide or just to the USA.
How about Real Madrid? They spend much more than MU, but don’t seem to have things together on the money-making end.
I thought that Murdoch’s billion dollar bid for Manchester United was turned down? What happened?
Manchester United $1.5billion
Little US franchises .
Well, I for one would have guessed Man U., but according to this:
It’s the Dallas Cowboys!
Which apparently does not take into the value of “cashing out”, eg, selling the team. Also, FWIW, the Washington Redskins were bought by Dan Snyder for $800 million. I forget what the new Houston franchise brought.
Yep, Man U is valued on the stock marketat around $1.5 billion (that’s one of many links all quoting the same figure).
It’s not owned by Murdoch or anyone else although Murdoch’s company BskyB is the largest shareholder with 9.9%.
I guess the market valuation is the real value as it’s what you have to pay to buy in.
Correction – I just noticed the market value of Man U is now considerably less. The $1.5 billion valuation relates to around May 2000 when a share was £4.00-ish. I don’t have the corrent figure handy but it was £1.70 at the end of July this year. Oops!
Market Capitalisation (£m)337.70 according to London Stock Exchange today. This converts to $481.87million.