Leafs more valuable than majority of NBA, MLB teams: report

Colour us shocked: The Toronto Maple Leafs are worth a lot of money.

Maybe not “they could buy Twitter if they wanted” money, but a decent amount of money regardless.

With stars like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, a spotlight role every Saturday night on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, and typically the most expensive tickets in the league on any given night, it’s no surprise the Leafs attract the cash flow.

They’re worth US$2.12 billion, to be exact, according to a recent report by Sportico’s Lev Akabas, topping the website’s recent National Hockey League franchise value rankings.

🏒 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

Toronto edges out the New York Rangers by a cool $100 million, while the Montreal Canadiens sit in third place among all teams at $1.7 billion. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, come in at $1.29 billion, third amongst Canadian teams as they are the NHL’s fastest-growing franchise at a growth rate of 11% from a year ago.

But while the Leafs being the top dog in the NHL might not be surprising, their topping 17 NBA franchises and 18 MLB franchises might do the trick.

The Leafs are ahead of plenty of teams you might not expect: The five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, the 2021 NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks (as well as their Finals opponent in the Phoenix Suns), and the Denver Nuggets, who feature the league’s two-time reigning MVP in Nikola Jokic.

The Maple Leafs do sit second as the most valuable team in the city though, trailing the Toronto Raptors just as they did a season ago.

The Toronto Maple Leafs ($2.12B) and NY Rangers ($2.01B) are each worth more than quite a few NBA and MLB teams

# of teams worth less than $3B:
NFL 🏈 – 4
NBA 🏀 – 23
MLB ⚾️ – 25
NHL 🏒 – all
MLS ⚽️ – all pic.twitter.com/wu6Ck4t47W

— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) November 1, 2022

When it comes to baseball, the Leafs are ahead of their own city counterpart in the Toronto Blue Jays, but also two other American League East teams in the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles.

Toronto’s valuation actually doubles the average NHL team, worth $1.01 billion, while their 2021-22 revenue of $276 million also dwarfs the average $192M revenue by most teams.

We can only hope all that money translates to some playoff success sometime soon.

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