Forbes Magazine this week published its special "Business of Baseball" report, which features valuations for all the Major League teams. Overall in baseball, revenues rose 7.7 percent to $5.5 billion last year, and the average team is now worth $472 million, or 9.5 percent more than last year.
The upshot for Nationals fans is that according to Forbes, the team is worth $460 million, or $10 million more than what the Lerner family paid for it in 2006. That's not a massive increase percentage-wise, but Forbes reports that team also had an operating income of $43.7 million, the highest in baseball. Furthermore, Forbes reports that the team should generate about $25 million per year from luxury suites and club seats at the new ballpark, nearly three times what it made RFK.
On its Web site, Forbes editor Michael Ozanian interviewed investment banker Sal Galatioto of Galatioto Sports Partners, and asked him specifically about the future of the Nationals in their new ballpark. Galatioto said the stadium will make a big difference for the team, but in the long run the Nationals must win games.
"People are going to go to see the building... once," Galatioto said. "They're going to look at the building and say 'it's a great building' If the team's not very good, they're not going to keep coming back. The secret sauce in all of this is on-the-field performance. If they get that right, I think baseball is going to be successful in Washington."
