Forbes report on NHL team valuations - December 2023

[Fenway]

Forbes doesn't think Montreal is a major market

The average value of an NHL team is now $1.33 billion, 29% higher than a year ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs, worth $2.8 billion, are the league’s most valuable team. The Leafs, are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which also owns Scotiabank Arena, and like most of the teams in the top third of Forbes’ annual hockey valuations, MLSE controls the economics to its arena and derives tremendous scale by also owning the arena’s other tenant, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.

The Maple Leafs dethroned the New York Rangers, who were No. 1 for eight consecutive years. The Rangers rose 20% in value to $2.65 billion, and also share their arena with an NBA team, the New York Knicks. But the Blue Shirts’ owner, publicly traded MSG Sports (controlled by the Dolan family), splits some of Madison Square Garden’s revenue with MSG Entertainment, also publicly traded.

Rounding out the top five, the Montreal Canadiens ($2.3 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($2 billion) and Boston Bruins ($1.9 billion) also have owners that own their arenas. Except for the Canadiens, each of the top five teams play in major markets. But Montreal, of course, has a devout hockey fanbase. So much so that its games are televised on both an English and French sports network, giving the team more than $70 million in local television revenue last season, the most in the league.

https://www.forbes.com/lists/nhl-valuations/?sh=7544a8604109

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[Yukon Joe]

Forbes doesn't think Montreal is a major market

I feel like you're looking for controversy here.

Forbes does in fact say that.

But here's a list of north american metro areas by population:

List of North American metropolitan areas by population - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The top three of Toronto, New York and LA are clearly a lot more "major". Where one could quibble is that Boston (pop 4.7 mil) is not really that much bigger than Montreal (pop 4.2 mil).


What I find striking here is the revenue: Arizona has only $120 mil, and Ottawa only $128 mil. When you consider the salary cap is $83.5 million, with a floor of $61.7 million, which makes margins pretty tight (admittedly both teams likely receive revenue sharing).

Arizona also has debt of 62% of it's estimated value, which is way higher than anyone else...

 

[Jets4Life]

Jets are 28th and Arizona is last.

 

[Colin226]

Love to see the New Jersey Devils climb up this list, yet again, to #11 overall in value. Also to note for NJ:

- 51% increase in value YoY to $1.45 Billion
- Higher revenue than teams like Boston, Chicago, and (cup winner) Vegas
- Higher value than Detroit, 4 Canadian franchises, and every Cup winner since 2018
- Very low debt relative to NHL franchise average (nearly bankrupt 10 years ago because of high debt)
- 2 of 3 Hughes brothers, so far..

My overall take is the size (population) and abundance of corporate sponsorships (money) continue to make New Jersey a great market for the NHL. The numbers get better every year.

 

[StreetHawk]

SJ always interesting to me that the NHL's NorCal team is like 20 spots behind where the SF 49ers, Giants, and GS Warriors are who are typically around 5th or so in their league's rankings as most valuable. Niners play in Santa Clara, but maintain their value with all of their years at Candlestick. Warriors were in Oakland before their recent move to the Chase Center.

Always been that way for the Sharks. Bottom 10 ranking. Figured they would have all of the Silicon valley tech companies as corporate sponsors along with the high earnings working for tech as their fanbase.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

SJ always interesting to me that the NHL's NorCal team is like 20 spots behind where the SF 49ers, Giants, and GS Warriors are who are typically around 5th or so in their league's rankings as most valuable. Niners play in Santa Clara, but maintain their value with all of their years at Candlestick. Warriors were in Oakland before their recent move to the Chase Center.

Always been that way for the Sharks. Bottom 10 ranking. Figured they would have all of the Silicon valley tech companies as corporate sponsors along with the high earnings working for tech as their fanbase.

Their TV deal is awful, Comcast screwed them.

 

[StreetHawk]

Their TV deal is awful, Comcast screwed them.

TV deals end and get renewed. SJ Sharks have been ranked in the bottom 10 of the NHL forever. Would their ranking change when their deal is up in however many years from now?

 

[jkrdevil]

TV deals end and get renewed. SJ Sharks have been ranked in the bottom 10 of the NHL forever. Would their ranking change when their deal is up in however many years from now?

A lot of local deals are long, long term. For instance I know Nj’s deal which is set to expire in the next year or so was signed in 2004.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Come on - that's the least surprising news ever. They have no arena or their own and play out of a 5,000 seat university rink.

I'm more surprised that Buffalo is #31. I mean if nothing else I'd much rather own the Sabres than CBJ or Florida.

Indeed. Pegula's ownership, overseeing a string of incompetent GM and HC hires and an unprecedented playoff drought, has run the Sabres' value into the dirt.

If there was ever a "buy low" sports franchise it's the Sabres.

 

[Fenway]

It is next to impossible to figure out the worth of the Bruins given the way Jacobs separates TD Garden and the team ( The proshop for example is under TD Garden )

He only paid $2 million in cash and gave the old owner Storer Broadcasting a $8 million credit for TV rights for 10 years. When that ended NESN was born in 1984.

 

[BMN]

I'm more surprised that Buffalo is #31. I mean if nothing else I'd much rather own the Sabres than CBJ or Florida.

You might reconsider when you realize the favourable terms Columbus and Sunrise city officials offer their NHL tenants.

 

[Groo]

Their TV deal is awful, Comcast screwed them.

As did the Sharks exec who negotiated the deal on behalf of the Sharks

 

[mouser]

Love to see the New Jersey Devils climb up this list, yet again, to #11 overall in value. Also to note for NJ:

- 51% increase in value YoY to $1.45 Billion
- Higher revenue than teams like Boston, Chicago, and (cup winner) Vegas
- Higher value than Detroit, 4 Canadian franchises, and every Cup winner since 2018
- Very low debt relative to NHL franchise average (nearly bankrupt 10 years ago because of high debt)
- 2 of 3 Hughes brothers, so far..

My overall take is the size (population) and abundance of corporate sponsorships (money) continue to make New Jersey a great market for the NHL. The numbers get better every year.

Whenever the new annual Forbes numbers are released I feel the need to highlight that the financial numbers they print are estimates, or my preferred term is they’re guesstimates.

The Forbes authors don’t have access to the actual team financial numbers, such as revenue or gross profit. Nor access to the team balance sheets including items like debt. The teams and the NHL don’t make this information public.

I’d like to think the Forbes authors are applying a reasonably consistent standard when calculating their estimates, but they still remain estimates with imperfect information on the actual team financials.

 

[FissionFire]

Wouldn’t have expected to see a recent expansion in Seattle have a higher value than a historical team like Detroit.

 

[mouser]

Wouldn’t have expected to see a recent expansion in Seattle have a higher value than a historical team like Detroit.

Seattle is a wealthier and faster growing market compared to Detroit. They could be overly optimistic on the Seattle franchise estimate, but wouldn’t shock me in the least if Seattle has more value going forward.

 

[StreetHawk]

Seattle is a wealthier and faster growing market compared to Detroit. They could be overly optimistic on the Seattle franchise estimate, but wouldn’t shock me in the least if Seattle has more value going forward.

Pistons of NBA rank 23. Portland (Seattle south) ranks ahead of Detroit at 22.
Wings more historic value than pistons. But market is a major driver of valuation.

Tigers ranking in the early 20’s while mariners at 13.

Would bet that when the nba expands to Seattle Forbes will be ranking the sonics ahead of the pistons

 

[TheLegend]

Come on - that's the least surprising news ever. They have no arena or their own and play out of a 5,000 seat university rink.

I'm more surprised that Buffalo is #31. I mean if nothing else I'd much rather own the Sabres than CBJ or Florida.

After seeing where Sportico valued them, they were valued right about where I expected Forbes to have them.

Relocation fanboys aside.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Whenever the new annual Forbes numbers are released I feel the need to highlight that the financial numbers they print are estimates, or my preferred term is they’re guesstimates.

The Forbes authors don’t have access to the actual team financial numbers, such as revenue or gross profit. Nor access to the team balance sheets including items like debt. The teams and the NHL don’t make this information public.

I’d like to think the Forbes authors are applying a reasonably consistent standard when calculating their estimates, but they still remain estimates with imperfect information on the actual team financials.

Yep, same as spotrac estimates

 

[Drytoast]

Of course it's us. Amazing considering the state of the Canadian economy right now. Not only do we have a large loyal fan base. We have large loyal hater base. I've seen haters who follow the Leafs more closely than I do! Watch more of the games and buy more merch to destroy and beat up while chanting "1967"!

Love it!

I call it the "Howard Stern effect"

 

[Junohockeyfan]

If Connor McDavid leaves Edm, their ranking goes from top 10 to bottom 10 in a nano-second.

 

[mouser]

Yep, same as spotrac estimates

Historically Spotrac was publishing the same identical numbers as Forbes, implying both outfits were using the same original author(s). Not sure if that's still the case as their numbers seem to be slightly different this year. Could still be the same author(s), but number snapshots taken at different points in time.

 

[BMN]

Of course it's us. Amazing considering the state of the Canadian economy right now. Not only do we have a large loyal fan base. We have large loyal hater base. I've seen haters who follow the Leafs more closely than I do! Watch more of the games and buy more merch to destroy and beat up while chanting "1967"!

Love it!

I call it the "Howard Stern effect"

What a lot of American hockey fans probably don't realize is that probably greater than half of Canada’s dedicated NHL fans would happily welcome a 10-15 year extension of the Canada SC drought so long as it came with a promise thar THEIR favourite team, not any of the other six, would be the one to break it.

 

[Drytoast]

What a lot of American hockey fans probably don't realize is that probably greater than half of Canada’s dedicated NHL fans would happily welcome a 10-15 year extension of the Canada SC drought so long as it came with a promise thar THEIR favourite team, not any of the other six, would be the one to break it.

Probably? But then are you telling me that United States hockey fans give two shits if some rando hockey market in the States wins it every year if their team doesnt?

 

[OG6ix]

Forbes doesn't think Montreal is a major market

The average value of an NHL team is now $1.33 billion, 29% higher than a year ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs, worth $2.8 billion, are the league’s most valuable team. The Leafs, are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which also owns Scotiabank Arena, and like most of the teams in the top third of Forbes’ annual hockey valuations, MLSE controls the economics to its arena and derives tremendous scale by also owning the arena’s other tenant, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.

The Maple Leafs dethroned the New York Rangers, who were No. 1 for eight consecutive years. The Rangers rose 20% in value to $2.65 billion, and also share their arena with an NBA team, the New York Knicks. But the Blue Shirts’ owner, publicly traded MSG Sports (controlled by the Dolan family), splits some of Madison Square Garden’s revenue with MSG Entertainment, also publicly traded.

Rounding out the top five, the Montreal Canadiens ($2.3 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($2 billion) and Boston Bruins ($1.9 billion) also have owners that own their arenas. Except for the Canadiens, each of the top five teams play in major markets. But Montreal, of course, has a devout hockey fanbase. So much so that its games are televised on both an English and French sports network, giving the team more than $70 million in local television revenue last season, the most in the league.

https://www.forbes.com/lists/nhl-valuations/?sh=7544a8604109

I kinda have to agree with them when it comes to sports the market is what it is. Population wise it's debatable.

 

[Fenway]

Their TV deal is awful, Comcast screwed them.

Could get worse as NBC Sports California is in limbo with the A's moving to Vegas