Bloomberg Values Cubs At $1.32 Billion

Usually, we see these sorts of "valuation" articles from Forbes, but now, Bloomberg has come out with its own financial rankings of MLB teams and says that 10 teams are worth $1 billion or more:

The average value of a Major League Baseball team is $1 billion, more than 35 percent higher than previous estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The New York Yankees are worth $3.3 billion, making them the sport’s most-valuable enterprise. The Los Angeles Dodgers rank second with a value of $2.1 billion.

"Major League Baseball is catching up to valuations of the National Football League," Anthony Di Santi, the managing director of the sports finance advisory division of New York-based Citigroup Inc.’s private bank, said at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit on Sept. 10. "It’s because they’ve been exploiting the media opportunities that are available to them on a national level." 

Bloomberg says the Cubs rank fifth in overall valuation at $1.32 billion -- but the Cubs have yet to "exploit the media opportunities" that the article mentions. They're certainly hoping to do so and the WGN-TV contract that's up at the end of the 2014 season would be their first chance to cash in, before the 2019 expiration of the CSN Chicago deal.

You can see all the team valuations on this cool infographic; click on the team logo to see how Bloomberg ranks each individual club.

Personally, I think they've got the Cubs rated a little too high here, given the falling attendance and TV ratings of the last two seasons. The WGN-TV contract might not be bid quite as high as it would have if the team were better.

What do you think? Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.