Giants Have Good Value: Forbes

Forbes released its annual list of the top valued baseball teams and yes the Giants made the list.

The New York Yankees remain at the top of the list with a value of $1.7 billion. San Francisco ranked No. 7 with an increased value of $563 million - a bump of 16-percent (thank you World Series).

Forbes found the average team is worth $523 million, which is an all time high.

The credit for a seven percent increase in overall value, according to Forbes, is new ballparks and regional sports networks. They boosted revenues to $6.1 billion for baseball's 30 teams. 

Here's your top ten:

RANK	TEAM	OWNER	CURRENT VALUE ($ mil)	1-YEAR CHANGE IN VALUE %	REVENUES ($mil)	OPERATING INCOME ($mil)
1	New York Yankees	Steinbrenner Family	$1,700	6%	$427	$25.7
2	Boston Red Sox	John Henry, Thomas Werner	912	5	272	-1.1
3	Los Angeles Dodgers	Frank McCourt	800	10	246	32.8
4	Chicago Cubs	Ricketts Family	773	6	258	23.4
5	New York Mets	Fred Wilpon, Saul Katz	747	-13	233	-6.2
6	Philadelphia Phillies	David Montgomery	609	13	239	8.9
7	San Francisco Giants	William Neukom	563	16	230	29.9
8	Texas Rangers	Ray Davis, Bob Simpson	561	25	206	22.6
9	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	Arturo Moreno	554	6	222	11.8
10	Chicago White Sox	Jerry Reinsdorf	526	13	210	27.6
LEAGUE AVERAGE	523	7	205	16.5

Forbes also wrote about the dark side of the game in this month's issue.  It blames "reckless ownership and lax debt policies within Major League Baseball for allowed popular teams like the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and most recently, the New York Mets to amass mountains of debt." 

In investigating the Mets’ involvement with Bernie Madoff and the team’s subsequent debt problems, Forbes concludes that it will be challenge for Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz to retain majority ownership.

You can read that article at this link.