US Pro Sports Team Valuations

1. The US pro sports economy is worth about $540 billion. Adding the four league totals — NFL $228B, NBA $162B, MLB $78B, NHL $70B — produces a combined market value of roughly $540 billion for the 124 US pro sports franchises.

2. The NFL dominates the top of the table. Of the top 20 franchises by value, 20 are NFL teams. The 21st ranked franchise is the Golden State Warriors at $11B — and the Warriors are worth more than 12 of the NFL's 32 teams. The 22nd is the New York Knicks. The 23rd is the New York Yankees at $8.2B. No MLB or NHL team appears in the top 20.

3. The floor tells the growth-rate story. The floor of each league — NFL Bengals $5.25B, NBA Grizzlies $3.5B, MLB Marlins $1.05B, NHL Blue Jackets $1.3B — ranks the leagues by average franchise scarcity. NFL scarcity is highest (32 teams, 210M US population per team). NHL scarcity is lowest (32 teams, but market split with Canada). MLB has the widest intra-league dispersion — the Yankees at $8.2B are 7.8x the Marlins at $1.05B.

4. Media rights explain the divergence. The NFL's 10-year, $125.5B media package (2023) locked in national revenue certainty for the decade. The NBA's 11-year, $76B package (2024) did the same. MLB has no comparable national package — the sport is regionally-monetized, and the RSN collapse is affecting valuations. The NHL sits between: solid national ESPN and TNT deals, but a smaller Canadian addressable market cap.

5. Ownership consolidation is accelerating. Private equity, sovereign wealth funds, and family-office consortia have moved into pro sports ownership since the pandemic. The NHL was first to explicitly allow institutional investment in franchises (2020). MLB followed (2019 with amendment 2023). NFL as of 2024 allows PE firms to own up to 10% of a franchise, with restrictions on which firms and which structures. NBA allows PE at up to 30%. Read this alongside the Institute's Acquisitions Atlas for the buyers.

NBA — Los Angeles Lakers (2) — Josh Kushner & Bob Iger — $12.5B (August 12, 2026). Mark Walter sold his controlling interest in the Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner (founder, Thrive Capital) and Bob Iger (former CEO, The Walt Disney Company) at a reported price of $12.5 billion (per CNBC, citing a person familiar with the matter) — a 25% markup on Walter's own fourteen-month hold and the new all-time US sports franchise record. Kushner and Iger were originally in the NBA's Las Vegas expansion process; per ESPN reporting they pivoted to acquire an existing franchise. Walter's exit sits against a public backdrop: US prosecutors in Manhattan are examining whether Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co. — two insurers controlled by Walter — failed to disclose that portions of their private-credit holdings backed other Walter-controlled ventures (Reuters, Bloomberg; not tied to the Lakers or the Dodgers). Institute point of view: the 25% markup on a fourteen-month hold is the market's clearest statement to date that trophy-asset scarcity dominates fundamentals in the current cycle. Iger's Disney tenure — including his role as CEO during the July 2024 eleven-year, $76B NBA-Disney-NBCU-Amazon media agreement — reads as operating expertise the Lakers ownership group has acquired; the current deal runs through roughly 2035-36, is fully visible to every ownership group, and is a decade from renewal. Institute Field Note No. 2 →

NBA — Los Angeles Lakers (1) — Mark Walter — $10B (June 2025). The Buss family sold controlling interest in the Lakers to Mark Walter (CEO of Guggenheim Partners; controlling owner of the Dodgers via Guggenheim Baseball Management; owner of stakes in Chelsea FC and Cadillac F1) at $10 billion EV. The price aligned with the Forbes 2025 mark; the transaction was the largest sports franchise sale in US history at the time of announcement. As of the August 2026 re-trade, Walter continues to control the Los Angeles Dodgers via Guggenheim Baseball Management.

NBA — Boston Celtics — Bill Chisholm group — $6.1B (March 2025). The Grousbeck family sold the Celtics to a group led by Bill Chisholm (co-founder of Symphony Technology Group). The $6.1B price closed slightly below the Forbes 2025 mark of $7.3B but was still the second-largest NBA transaction on record at the time.

NFL — Atlanta Falcons — Arctos Partners — 10% at $10.6B enterprise value (August 2026). Arthur Blank agreed to sell a 10% minority stake to Arctos Partners at a $10.6 billion enterprise valuation, funded in two tranches over roughly 18 months and subject to an NFL owners’ vote expected October 2026. Blank retains control at just under 73%. He bought the franchise in 2002 for $545M — roughly a 19x return on the entry check over 24 years, and 67% above the Forbes 2025 mark of $6.35B. Disclosed limited partners include Rosalind Brewer, Dominique Dawes, Will Packer and Rashaun Williams. Arctos’ fourth NFL position after the Chargers, Bills and Browns. Institute read on the PE rule →

NFL — Seattle Seahawks — The Khosla family — $9.612B (announced July 11, 2026). Formal agreement to acquire 100% of the Seahawks from the Paul G. Allen Trust at $9.612 billion. NFL owners ratified the deal unanimously on August 26, 2026, making it the largest sports franchise transaction in history — 43% above the Forbes 2025 mark of $6.7B on the franchise and 59% above the prior NFL record (Commanders 2023 at $6.05B). Neeru Khosla becomes controlling owner (30%-plus per NFL rule); husband Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems, Khosla Ventures) provides primary capital; son Neal Khosla takes an operational role. Vinod must divest his existing minority stake in the 49ers as a condition of the deal. Sale proceeds continue to Paul Allen's philanthropic causes under his Giving Pledge commitment. Institute case →

NFL — Las Vegas Raiders — Durban / Meldman / Dell group — 25.3% at $9.9B implied EV (May 2026). A group led by Egon Durban (co-CEO Silver Lake) and Michael Meldman (Discovery Land Company; Casamigos) bought a 25.3% stake from First Football. Co-investors include Michael Dell (5.3%), Blackstone's Joseph Baratta (1.7%), TKO's Ari Emanuel (1.4%), and TKO's Mark Shapiro (0.6%). Implied EV $9.9 billion — 29% above the Forbes 2025 mark of $7.7B. The pool is structured as an NFL-approved succession framework: Durban holds a formal option to eventually acquire a controlling interest if Mark Davis steps aside. This is layered on top of the controversial October 2024 admission of Tom Brady and Tom Wagner at a combined 10% priced at a $3.5B valuation — the "sweetheart deal" that made the Durban repricing eighteen months later so meaningful.

NFL — Other 2025-2026 minority transactions. New York Giants sold a minority stake to Julia Koch & family at an implied $10.25B EV. New England Patriots sold 8% (Sixth Street 3% + Metropoulos 5%) at $9B implied. Miami Dolphins sold 1%+ to Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin as part of a $12.5B stadium/franchise/Grand Prix package. Cleveland Browns sold 10% in tranches to Arctos Partners at $9B+ implied. Earlier institutional firsts — Buffalo Bills to Arctos, Miami Dolphins to Ares (Dec 2024) — opened the market following the NFL's August 2024 rule change permitting institutional capital up to 10% per franchise.

MLB — San Diego Padres — José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones — $3.9B, unanimously approved by MLB owners August 17, 2026. The largest transaction in Major League Baseball history, and the first MLB franchise sale to clear the price of a mid-table NBA club. Feliciano is co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital; Jones is an investor and entrepreneur. The sale closed the Seidler family ownership question that had been open since Peter Seidler’s death in November 2023. The two-clock read matters here. Sportico’s 2026 MLB set, published March 18, 2026, carried the Padres at $3.10B — already the largest single-year gain in that set at +34%. The transaction printed five months later at 26% above that estimate. Against the Forbes 2025 mark of $2.15B that this page carried until Aug 31, 2026, the transaction printed 81% higher. Against the $800M the Seidler-O’Malley group paid in 2012, it is 4.9× over fourteen years — a 12.0% compound annual return on a franchise that has never reached a World Series. The prior MLB record was the $2.4B Mets sale to Steve Cohen in 2020. See the MLB Team Valuations hub for the full Sportico 2026 set.

MLB — Los Angeles Angels — Kroenke Sports & Entertainment — a reported $4.0B valuation, agreed September 1, 2026, not yet closed. Arte Moreno agreed to sell a controlling interest in the Angels to Stan Kroenke's KSE, ending a twenty-three-year tenure. Three cautions, and the Institute states all three rather than printing the headline. The transaction has not closed — approval by the other Major League clubs is expected in the first quarter of 2027, so unlike the Padres this is not a league-approved sale. Neither MLB nor either party disclosed the consideration; MLB's own announcement states no price, which makes the $4.0B press reporting sourced to people familiar with the deal. And what the figure describes is a valuation placed on a controlling interest, with Moreno reported to retain an undisclosed minority, not the cash that changes hands. On the reported number it would displace the Padres as the largest transaction in MLB history and tie the Phoenix Suns and Mercury for eighth among all North American franchise sales. The two-clock read. Sportico marked the Angels at $2.78B on March 18, 2026, ranking them thirteenth in MLB; the reported valuation sits 44% above that estimate, against the Padres' 26%. Forbes 2025 carried $1.75B, which the reported valuation clears by 129%. Against Moreno's 2003 purchase from The Walt Disney Company — reported in the range of $180M to $183.5M, a variance that is in the contemporaneous reporting rather than a later revision — $4.0B is roughly a 14.4% compound annual return across twenty-three years, on a club that has not reached a postseason since 2014. The structural note. For Kroenke this is a fifth major-league franchise and it raises no NFL cross-ownership question: the rule bars a controlling interest in a major-league team in another NFL club's market, and Anaheim sits inside the Rams' own. That same rule cost him control of the Nuggets and Avalanche as the price of full Rams ownership in 2010. See the Rams case study for the KSE portfolio treatment.

MLB — New York Yankees / Yankee Global Enterprises — Apollo Sports Capital — $2.6B financing (August 11, 2026). Apollo Sports Capital (permanent-capital platform of Apollo Global Management, launched 2025) closed a $2.6B mixed credit-plus-equity financing into Yankee Global Enterprises (YGE), the holding company of the New York Yankees and stakes in Legends Hospitality, YES Network, NYCFC, and AC Milan. Proceeds refinance existing debt and fund continued growth. Apollo Sports Capital CEO Al Tylis takes one seat on an expanded YGE board; Hal Steinbrenner remains Managing General Partner and MLB Control Person; the Steinbrenner family retains full operating control. Institute practitioner inference on implied YGE enterprise value: assuming a ~60/40 credit-to-equity split ($1.6B refinancing + $1.0B new equity) and that the equity purchase reflects a ~10% minority stake (consistent with one board seat on an expanded board), implied YGE EV lands in the roughly $10B range — above the Forbes 2025 Yankees-only mark of $8.2B, consistent with YGE's non-franchise holdings (YES stake, Legends, NYCFC, AC Milan) adding roughly $2B of aggregate value. The structural pattern — permanent capital deployed into a founder-family-controlled operating asset with preserved operating control and no forced-exit timeline — is the exact template the Institute walked in the August 2026 "Most Large Companies Become PE Firms Without the LP Distribution Requirements" Brief. Goldman Sachs advised YGE; Gibson Dunn provided legal counsel to YGE. This is the first named permanent-capital-into-MLB transaction of the current cycle and expands the "permanent capital for founder-family-controlled operating assets" category into professional sports at scale.

Cross-league takeaway. The transaction market has repriced the top of the NFL curve materially above the Forbes annual mark, and the NBA has now cleared its own Forbes marks decisively — the Lakers re-traded fourteen months after Walter's $10B purchase at a reported $12B+, an implied 20% markup that is the largest documented re-trade premium in modern US sports M&A. MLB has now printed its own record — the Padres at $3.9B on Aug 17, 2026, 81% above the Forbes 2025 mark and 26% above Sportico’s March 18, 2026 estimate — alongside the Apollo Sports Capital financing into Yankee Global Enterprises on Aug 11, 2026 — and two weeks after the Padres closed, the Angels agreed at a reported $4.0B, 44% above their own March 2026 Sportico mark. Read the two MLB prints together and the finding is not about either club: published valuation models are lagging baseball's transaction market, the lag runs one way, and it is widening. The NHL, with multiple minority transactions in progress, is the remaining chapter to watch. See the per-league hubs for detail on the Forbes marks, the Sports Division Hub for Institute case studies, and Field Note No. 2 for the practitioner treatment of the Lakers re-trade.