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The Phillies Are worth over $1 Billion but Operated at a Loss Last Year
By Jim Adair
Published:
When we last checked in on the Phillies’ valuation, they were the sixth most valuable MLB franchise, worth $975 million. Since then, they’ve gone both up and down. According to Forbes’ 2015 MLB valuations, the Phillies come in at number ten:
10. Philadelphia Phillies
Team value: $1.25 bil.
Revenue: $265 mil.
Operating loss: $39.0 mil.The Phillies recently inked a 25-year television agreement with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia that will begin with the 2016 season and is worth more than $5 billion.
The team’s overall value went up, as did the league’s. “The average baseball team is now worth $1.2 billion, 48% more than a year ago,” according to Forbes. “[That’s] the biggest year-over-year increase since we began tracking team values in 1998. A record 15 MLB teams are now worth at least $1 billion, up from five in 2014.”
Kyle: Few thoughts here:
1) These gains are INSANE, but not surprising. Sports valuations are going up and up thanks to games being one of the few things people have to watch live. We’ve probably reached peak regional broadcast rights deals, but national TV deals (and soon streaming deals?) still have some room to run, I think.
2) The Nationals are ranked ninth, ahead of the Phillies?! They were 13th last year and the Phillies were sixth. Remember that time we all laughed at Jayson Werth? Yeah, we were wrong.
3) The Phillies and, understandably, the spend-happy Dodgers were the only two teams of the top 12 to operate at a loss. In fact, the Phillies had the biggest loss, by far, of any team in the Majors:
That TV deal will kick in soon and things will balance out. But yikes, this is what happens when you have a high payroll and declining ticket sales.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.