MLB Team Values First Look | Dan Snyder's Big Bargain | The Marlins' Big Problem

Cohen needs to sign Francisco Lindor, a great player in his prime at a crucial position, to a contract extension. Another shortstop, Fernando Tatis Jr., recently signed a 14-year, $340 million deal with the Padres, and the Mets should give Lindor a comparable deal because it would likely improve the team’s value.

In addition, although it is not included in the chart, there is an opportunity for increased gate revenues if the club makes the playoffs. In 2015, the last time the Mets had a deep postseason run, the organization brought in an additional $17 million in gate revenue for its playoff games. And like fans, sponsors are more likely to flock to, and pay more to advertise with, teams that have a better on-field product.

FSG owns the Red Sox, Liverpool FC, New England Sports Network (80%), Roush Fenway Racing (50%), Fenway Sports Management and some real estate. The Red Sox and Liverpool are enormously valuable brands: The Red Sox are among a handful of baseball teams with national appeal, and Liverpool has global fan support. For our new MLB valuations, we calculated the Red Sox’ brand value at $335 million. The only baseball teams with higher brand values are the Yankees ($1.05 billion), the Mets ($451 million) and the Dodgers ($420 million). When we last valued soccer teams, in 2019, Liverpool had a brand value of $205 million, seventh-highest among soccer teams, behind Real Madrid ($725 million), Barcelona ($465 million), Manchester United ($444 million), Bayern Munich ($392 million), Manchester City ($310 million) and Chelsea ($259 million). Brand values measure name recognition that goes beyond the current revenue being generated by a team. RedBird Capital clearly recognized that in its valuation of FSG.

In September 2017, a group that was led by Bruce Sherman and featured Jeter bought the Marlins for $1.2 billion. But in our MLB valuations being published Monday, we value the Marlins at $990 million. Main reason: the Marlins’ inability to get a local television deal as lucrative as Project Wolverine projected. The document predicted the team’s cable television and local radio revenue would increase from an MLB-low $20 million in 2020 (the last year of the agreement that was in place with Fox Sports Florida) to $51 million in 2021. According to the document, the team’s radio revenue for 2020 was $1.67 million, and it was projected to stay at that amount until at least 2027. So the kind of increase the document forecast would have to come on the TV side.

In August 2019, Fox Sports Florida, along with 20 other Fox regional sports networks, was acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The Marlins would not share any financial information on the team’s deal with Fox Sports Florida—which is being rebranded as Bally Sports Florida—but two sports bankers and one MLB executive told me that the Marlins were having problems getting a new cable deal done and that MLB had to intercede to make sure an agreement was in place for this season. They also said the amount the Marlins are getting for their TV rights this season is not good. To make matters worse, the Marlins are one of a handful of MLB teams that do not have a naming rights deal for their ballpark. It was anticipated at the time Sherman bought the team that one would be coming, and would be worth at least $5 million a year to the Marlins. But so far, nothing, which is why our valuation is well below the $1.2 billion purchase price.

The 2020 MLB schedule was reduced to 60 games, or 37% of the 162-game schedule, but regional sports networks paid out a little over 40% of their scheduled rights fees to teams. Here is how much the top five took in.