Sportico, a resource for sports business news, came out with its valuations of every NHL franchise on Thursday. The Washington Capitals have become one of the most valuable franchises in the NHL under owner Ted Leonsis’s leadership.
The Capitals are valued as the ninth-most valuable franchise at $1.22 billion after coming in at eighth last year ($1.17 billion).
According to Sportico, the Toronto Maple Leafs ($2.12 B) are still the most valuable franchise in the NHL while the New York Rangers ($2.01 B) and Montreal Canadiens ($1.7 B) are both also worth over $1.5 billion dollars. The Rangers have also eclipsed the $2 billion mark for the first time in their history.
Sportico announced that the average NHL franchise is now worth $1.01 billion, crossing the 10-figure mark for the first time and up nine percent from just a year ago.
Here is the rest of the top ten.
🏒 NHL VALUATIONS 2022 🏒
The average NHL franchise is worth $1.01 billion—crossing the 10-figure mark for the first time—and up 9% from a year ago. https://t.co/Nr3uh0dClx pic.twitter.com/HmnajSCx6b
— Sportico (@Sportico) November 1, 2022
In late 2018 after the Stanley Cup win, Forbes ranked the Capitals value tenth most in the NHL. That ranking came after Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, bought a 20 percent stake in Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the second largest stake in the 19-person Monumental group. The Capitals also signed a new TV deal in 2016 that saw their license fee rise from $13 to $28 million per year.
Leonsis’ MSE recently closed on the acquisition of NBCUniversal’s stake in NBC Sports Washington from Comcast Corporation. The closure means MSE has fully acquired NBC Sports Washington — the TV rights holder of Washington Capitals games. As reported back in late August, the purchase now gives MSE the option of building a potentially powerful streaming platform and with that more power to shape the primary coverage of the Caps.
Leonsis originally paid Abe Polin $85 million in 1999 for the Caps franchise.
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
