So... Alright - Sports vs Harry Potter?

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Geoff takes a look at the most valuable sports franchises in the world, and contrasts them with the most valuable entertainment franchises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, today I want to talk about two things. Well, actually, what I want to do is explain to you what you're about to listen to. Last week, I did an episode where I was just talking about the most expensive things in the world, and I went off on a bunch of tangents. One of those tangents I went off on was a discussion that ended up being about the most valuable sports franchises. I got there because I was listing the richest people in the world. I got to Steve Ballmer, and he owns the Los Angeles Clippers. So I was discussing that, got into a whole conversation about how the Clippers are worth so much more now than they were when he bought them in 2014.

And then before I knew it, I was off to the races talking about the most successful sports franchises across all sports. And then because I didn't want to be too sports heavy, I covered the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. Anyway, it ended up being kind of long and it didn't on to the beginning of it, let you join in right as I'm discovering that Steve Ballmer has made a bunch of money off of the Clippers, and then the conversation goes. Then I'll jump back in at the very end and wrap things up. All right, here we go. and wrap things up. All right, here we go. The top five. Steve Ballmer's now only worth $111 billion. Steve Ballmer's worth $111 billion fucking dollars. I mean, I guess he must be, right? He bought the Clippers for, what, $2 billion,

which seemed like so much money at the time, and now, well, I think the Suns were valued at over $4 billion, right? Phoenix Suns. Not the actual Sun. I'm not sure what that one's worth but the nba team the phoenix suns i think what do they sell for 4.5 billion phoenix suns value 4 billion just 4 billion uh huh so if he what is the los angeles clippers Los Angeles Clippers worth. The Los Angeles Clippers. Oh, I'm going to have to dive into this list.

Most valuable franchises in sports. I'll do that later, some other time. I'll probably make a whole episode of that. The Los Angeles Clippers are valued at number five on most valuable NBA teams at $4.65 billion. So Steve Ballmer purchased them in 2014 for $2 billion. They generate $425 million in revenue a year. They have a $12 million operating income. Player expenses are $198 million.

That's all Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook and James Harden. They get $51 million a year from gate receipts. I guess that's tickets sold to games. The wins to player cost ratio. I don't understand what that means. So like 80 wins to every player. How does that make sense?

Revenue per fan. Okay, that's cool that's interesting 24 so they get an average of 24 out of every clippers fan i'm surprised it's that low and the metro area population is 12.9 million i don't really matter uh interesting well now i maybe i do want to see well, so the point being, Steve Ballmer bought that team nine years ago for $2 billion, and he could sell it today for $4.65 billion. And I bet he could sell it for a little bit more than that, and I bet he would sell it quickly. There is nothing rich people, like ultra-rich people, want more than to own sports franchises.

Okay, number four. I wonder who it is. Boston Celtics. Love you. Good luck on the game tonight, guys. We're playing the Warriors. Let's get a little revenge. They're not who they were.

They're playing with that Draymond. They're worth $4.7 billion. Of course, Wick Grouseback and his family and some other people own it. They've had 17 championships dude 4.7 billion dollars for a team with 17 championships seems like a fucking steal honestly they were purchased in 2002 ah this will blow your dick off they were purchased in 2002 for 360 million dollars by i guess that conglomerate of the grouse specs and pagliuca and epstein not

the other not that epstein i think a different epstein uh yeah they paid 360 million dollars worth 4.7 billion that's pretty good uh return on investment they get they had generated revenue 443 million dollars dude i'm a i do my best to be a big part of that every pair of socks i wear is celtic socks. I own like four. I have an entire wardrobe of Celtics clothes at this point. Their operating income is $88 million. $185 million in player expenses. and Jalen Brown and Al Horford and Chris Stapps Porzingis, Drew Holiday, Derek White,

Peyton Pritchard, Luke Cornett. Well, I could keep going, but you get the idea. 146 wins to player cost ratio. I assume that. Ah, here we go. Revenue per fan, $45. That makes more sense. So I guess the top three, let's get let's let's game this out. We've we've determined that the Los Angeles Clippers are number five and the Celtics are number four. So it's going to be major markets. It's going to be obviously the number one team. I think a lot of people are going to think the Lakers, but I bet it's not. I bet it's the Knicks. I bet the New York there is that is a valuable franchise, even though they're not worth a

damn on the court and they haven't been for a long time although i guess jalen brunson's doing everything in his power to change that uh it's probably so probably i would go miami heat number three because miami is a huge market then los angeles lakers then new york knicks let's see how close we get. Number three is, oh, I was wrong. Los Angeles Lakers. Damn, they're only worth $6.4 billion. They also have 17 championships if you count a different team that lived in a different state, which all Lakers fans do. Whereas the Celtics, we'll just claim all the ones we actually won in Boston. That, ah, here you go. So it was,

but it was purchased in 1979 for 20 million and then purchased, repurchased again in 2021 for 5 billion. So it's now worth dude, two years, $1.4 billion increase in value. That's a, that's pretty crazy. Their revenue per fan is $56.

Also seems low for the Lakers, but number two, then will be the New York Knicks. Am I stupid? What's number one going to be? Is it Golden State? Let's see. I really would have thought. $6.6 billion. Of course, it's owned by Madison Square Garden Sports. It was purchased in 1997 for $300 million. They make $504 million a year in revenue. That's wild. And they make about $39 per fan.

Interesting. So it's worth $6.6 billion. So I guess that means number one is either Golden State or Miami. I would think it would be Miami, but I feel like I'm being tricked. I feel like this is a bait and switch. Yeah. I just find that hard to believe. The Golden State Warriors are worth $7.7 billion. It was purchased in 2000, most recently purchased in 2010 for $450 million. I mean, here we go right here. Revenue $765 million a year. They're worth $7.7 billion.

The average revenue here, this is why average revenue per fan is $110. So basically, that's a lot of Steph Curry jerseys. That's a whole hell of a lot of Steph Curry jerseys. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Forget the pressure to be crushing your workout on day one. Just start moving with the Peloton bike, bike plus tread row guide or app. There are thousands of classes and over 50 Peloton instructors ready

to support you from the beginning. Remember, doing something is everything. Rent the Peloton bike or bike plus today at onepeloton.ca slash bike slash rentals. All access memberships separate. Terms apply. That means Steph Curry is clearly more valuable than LeBron James now I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that LeBron has played for multiple teams whereas Steph has been on the Warriors his whole career like there's a continuity there I can't imagine that would matter sports is a popularity contest and for a lot of people i don't think it really matters where you play huh okay well that's a that's fascinating the golden state warriors are worth 7.7 billion dollars owned by joe lakob and uh peter guber gubar guber no it's guber guber

they've won seven championships of course four in the last few years god damn dude golden state warriors so where did miami all right i'm sorry i'm gonna i just gotta find out where miami fell to they must have been six or seven i really thought they would have been higher uh chicago bulls number six number seven d Dallas Mavericks that's interesting number eight Houston Rockets number nine Philly number 10 Toronto man I'm a fucking idiot when it comes to valuing sports teams apparently Miami Heat are 12th or 3.9 billion dollars all right so what's the most valuable most value I'm getting further and further away from what I started to do here. Most valuable baseballs, baseball team.

For you non-sports fans, I have another idea I'll do after this. Okay. Baseball's most valuable teams. We'll just do the number one, two, and big surprise number one new york yankees worth 700 billion dollars number two los angeles dodgers worth uh just under five billion although with the addition of shohei i can't imagine that that doesn't uh jump up significantly number three is boston red sox worth 4.5 billion that's interesting i wouldn't think that outside of the Yankees and Dodgers, I wouldn't think that baseball franchises would have the same value

as NBA franchises just at this point in time in 2023. But I guess that shows my bias because they clearly do. What about NFL? All right, we'll do NFL real fast then I'll do the non-sports thing.

NFL, most valuable. All right, before we go, I know way less about NFL, but I'm going to guess the most valuable NFL teams would be the Dallas Cowboys, Patriots, and Giants, maybe? Maybe Philly? Let's see. Dallas Cowboys remain the most valuable team in the league at a record 9 billion up 13 percent from a year ago holy fucking shit dude nine billion dollars for the Dallas Cowboys nine billion dollars for a sport where the team plays 18 games a year. Jesus. All right. Average team. Yeah, the NFL is such a juggernaut,

man. The average value of an NFL team is $5.1 billion. The average value of an NBA team is $2.86 billion. That's a huge drop off between one and two. Below that is MLB with $2.32 billion. So I was right that NBA in general is more valuable than MLB, although there's no NBA team as valuable as the New York Yankees apparently. Soccer, top 30 teams. As defined by what? I feel like I'm going to get, if I just throw out soccer, I'm going to get yelled at.

So what are the top 30 teams? Okay. I assume it's going to be across leagues. We're looking at, yeah, we're looking at Real Madrid. We're looking at Man United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Man City. So we're looking at, you know, English Premier League. We're looking at La Liga. They're including, well, Bayern Munich, I assume they're including the Bundesliga. So it's a pretty robust list we'll we'll say that and they are worth 2.1 billion formula one is worth 1.8 billion for 10 fucking teams that's 20 cars that are worth 1.8 billion that's pretty wild i guess i guess that makes sense okay well there you go the nfl dwarfs all other sports in terms of value. But what is the most valuable entertainment franchise? I'm going to go out on a limb and say Rooster Teeth will not make the list. But I'll cross my fingers just in case.

Number 10, I believe. Call of Duty. $31 billion. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. I was right, I counted right. So Call of Duty is the 10th highest grossing entertainment franchise of all time, grossing $31 billion. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is number nine

with $32.3 billion. That is crazy because the marvel cinematic universe is built off of a comic book company the box office itself is like it's like the value it's generated 32.3 billion dollars about 30 billion from movies it's crazy to think that comic books, I wonder what the Marvel, I wonder what Marvel Comics is worth. So, I mean, I, I, I don't know if that include MCU includes other facets of the company, like, like print publishing, but God damn. All right. Number eight is Barbie. We're, uh, generated $33.9 billion in sales. I feel like Barbie's probably going to jump up the list. I mean, they got such a shot in the arm of fan adrenaline this year, and deservedly so,

that I think that Barbie's going to be operating at an elevated level for a while, for the near future, for sure. Number six is Harry Potter, The Wizarding World for $34.5 billion. So not that much more valuable than Barbie, although I guess you could consider the books that, you know, they don't have about 40 years of sales that Barbie does, but that's fucking wild. Number six is, here's where I am ignorant. Number six is Anpanman. Anpanman. Japanese children's superhero picture book series written by Takashi Yanase,

running from 1973 until his death in 2013. The series has been adapted into an anime entitled Sorakei and Panaman, which is one of the most popular anime series ever. I've never heard of this. I don't recognize the character or anything that's wild well it's worth 38.4 billion dollars so clearly i am uh behind the times on that one disney princesses i guess that's just as its own entity uh or the princess line has generated 45.4 billion

dollars star wars coming in at number four what do you think star wars is worth if you had to guess i'm giving you time to think about it before i blurt out the answer 46.7 billion so that's 29 billion in merchandise sales that's 10 billion in the box office that's 1.2 billion at home video video games is 4 billion that's nice to see book $1.2 billion at home video. Video games is $4 billion. That's nice to see. Book sales, $1.8 billion. That's nice to see. And then TV revenue, $280 million. TV revenue is dwarfed in comparison to everything else. Winnie the Pooh, it comes in at number three. The third highest grossing entertainment franchise of all time, Winnie the Pooh, is grossed $48.5 billion. poo is grossed 48.5 billion dollars it's all retail sales 48.25 billion retail 40 million in dvd and blu-ray 214 million in box office it is all retail sales that's wild number two

see that this so confusing because number two is mickey mouse and friends right uh which is Mickey Mouse and Friends, right? Which has generated $52 billion. But it's all fucking Disney. Like the Disney princesses, that's all Disney. I don't, if we would combine it, why would they combine it? They're separate entertainment properties. Don't be an idiot, Jeff.

Number one, I guessed ahead of time and I was dead on. I'm sure you know what it is too. Pokemon has generated 88 billion dollars in revenue and it's largely licensed merchandise about 80 billion in licensed merchandise the video game the pokemon mobile games have only generated 6.1 billion dollars which is a lot but nothing compared to the juggernaut uh that the licensed merchandise is and i gotta admit i don't really give a shit about pokemon uh positively or negatively i mean i'm super ambivalent towards it but when we went to japan we went to that tokyo

sky tree i think is what it's called and they had the pokemon store in there and that store definitely looked like a place that made 8888 billion. It was pretty wild. Okay, so this completes my list of most valuable sports franchises contrasted with most valuable entertainment franchises. And also, I will say to everybody out there who's telling you that you need to throw a ball really hard or run very fast or hit something with a stick a long way? Sure, if you want to be a part of a four to five billion dollar a year industry, or maybe practice with your Harry Potter one, that shit's worth so much more money. Or fuck it, learn how to play Pokemon. You'll be a part of the most successful entertainment industry ever. And I say this as a sports fan, but that shit's kicking the dicks out of sports. All right.