2025 +$2 M 2026 +$9 M In general, in soccer, at least 90% of clubs lose money. 2 seasons ago in EFL L2 only one club lost less than $1.36M.
Well with the schedule change and the need for a decent amount of teams to upgrade/build new facilities..... probably going to be a few more years.
But where’s the revenue coming from? Stadium isn’t full. TV deal is only a few mil per team. Thx, Jay!
According to the interwebs sponsorship, hospitality, high concession prices. Maybe one day they'll spend some money on the team.
No, that wouldn’t count as revenue. Does the club make any money from hosting the XFL or NWSL? Did Audi host more than a couple of one offs, like an El Salvador friendly? That would be where I look.
Is it? I understand there is only one Messi but Miami has seemed to figure out how to make money. Somehow the two New York teams haven't. Chicago seems they are trying for a big name, San Diego is interesting with the names they become rumored with, is there a few more players that might push another jump in revenue for the league? Wouldn't hurt to have a few more names in the league as they try to push more viewer numbers on Apple TV with the new arrangement.
I don't think non-MLS related stadium rental is included in the Forbes valuations. They do have 31 hospitality suites, which seems like a lot for a relatively small stadium.
So 5 MLS teams are valued at a billion dollars. I’m dead serious here…outside of England, can any other league claim that? Italy can’t, it has only 4 such clubs. The #5 club would be between Nashville and San Diego. https://footballbenchmark.com/w/how...worth-and-who-would-win-or-lose-from-selling- La Liga? Please, not even close. The #4 club isn’t even worth half a billion dollars. The Rapids are the only American club worth less. https://tribuna.com/en/blogs/how-much-will-it-cost-to-buy-every-la-liga-club-this-season/ It’s actually hard to google this stuff because the links are almost always for web pages linked to the transfer values of the squad, not how much it would cost to buy the club. I feel pretty safe saying Ligue Un can’t match MLS because their TV deal collapsed. That just leaves Germany, which has those ownership rules making it impossible. MLS is the best managed league in the world. Prove me wrong! To me, the next frontier for the league would be to retain the trickle-becoming-a-torrent of very young players leaving for Europe. You look at La Liga with Cucho and Oluwayesi and Buchanan and Vargas, and realize just how good the league would be if it could retain more of those players. Because outside of the EPL, 3 clubs in La Liga, 1 or 2 in Germany, PSG, and a couple of Italian clubs, any ex MLSer or ex MLS academy player playing in Europe could have stayed here, if the competitive level was worth it. We can match them for salaries.
MLS is the best managed league because it can manage it's salaries and prevent clubs going into massive debt. The single-entity makes that doubly so. European owners can voluntarily vote for salary restrictions but if the Football League tell Ryan Reynolds or the Eredivisie tell PSV they can only spend €5 million on salaries there's gonna be a court battle. As long as Europe has the Champions League it will be the Mecca for young players. Maybe when They Rapids win the CWC things will change. As for the chaos: Barcelona are over $2 billion in debt. Crystal Palace folded and created a new ownership company but the team kept playing. Parma folded in 2015 but they're back in 12th place in Serie A. These things don't happen in American sports. I guess LAFC could be Chivas 2 and the Cosmos keep popping up but it's not the same. According to this report , leading uo to 2025/26 "not a single [EFL] Championship club generated a positive operating profit prior to player trading. Total pre-tax losses across the league stood at £317 million. Negative operating cash flows, cash generated by core operations minus day-to-day costs, before investment and financing activities, reached £422 million. This massive operational shortfall forced club owners to inject £417 million in fresh capital merely to maintain operational continuity, cover payroll, and fund facility investments." And that's despite £230 million in parachute payments. It's chaos!
This really is the key. I think people overemphasize revenue in these valuations. Sports teams are toys for rich people and as teams in the top American leagues get more and more expensive, it's hard for your smaller billionaire to buy a toy. Most European teams are not as attractive, not only because much of the revenue of the European teams is eaten up by salaries, but also because of the risk. If richer people start buying teams in your league and spending more, you either need to spend more yourself and lose money, or get relegated, and then your toy isn't as much fun. MLS manages both kinds of risk by limiting what anyone can spend and by getting rid of relegation.
The new arrangement doesn't give the league more money for increased viewership/subscriptions. Further, how are global viewership numbers going to get MLS a better domestic broadcast deal the next go round? The league needs to increase the talent of the floor and middle of the rosters. Increasing the top end at the expense of the depth isn't going to move the league forward long term. Having better and more competition within teams for roster spots across the entire team creates a better overall product. Itb also helps to develop better players.
Serie A per team: $172.8 MLS per team: $80.2 Mean Serie A payroll (via https://footystats.org/italy/serie-a/salaries): $107.1m, 62.0% Mean MLS payroll: $18.0m, 22.5% Median Serie A first team payroll: $60m, ratio 1.79:1 Median MLS first team payroll: $16.5m, ratio 1.09:1
According to Capology, the mean Serie A wage bill is $68.1m and the median is $50.0m. Even using the data from footystats, the mean wage bill comes out to $81.5m. Maybe somebody can check my math.
Sorry, that's right, let a faulty line of data in my sheet, so if we go with footystats, it now looks like Serie A per team: $172.8 MLS per team: $80.2 Mean Serie A payroll (via https://footystats.org/italy/serie-a/salaries): $81.5, 47.0% Mean MLS payroll: $18.0m, 22.5% Median Serie A first team payroll: $60m, ratio 1.36:1 Median MLS first team payroll: $16.5m, ratio 1.09:1
Italian sources typically report salaries net of taxes, unlike the UK or US. I'm not sure if that makes up the difference there, but it could be a cause. Note that Italy has until recently (and still in effect for grandfathered players) had a law on the books that reduces taxes for some (read hundreds of) foreign players.
Well, if Forbes doesn't count it, that's that. But if so, DC United is collecting something from every Spirit, Defender, and Power game played at Audi. Plus the assortment of other events every year; concert, college football, int'l soccer friendly. I wonder if they got any sweet FIFA money for hosting some CWC last summer, too?
This comports with what I'd always been told, which is that MLS clubs posting a profit is an accident. They're designed to break even and make money for ancillary businesses. Pretty sure Mark Abbott even said this in an interview long ago, though it could have changed.
That sort of makes it ironic that Axel Schuster at Vancouver won the Mark Abbot MLS Sporting Executive of the Year Award in 2025. The only team that doesn't have some control over stadium revenue.
I assume that 'sporting' part means the award doesn't consider the financial side, where Vancouver has legit been near the bottom of the table for years.
English rugby union is moving to a franchise model, with a 10 team closed Premier division, no pro/rel and plans to add 2 expansion teams.