Rangers Worth A Pretty Penny
In their annual survery, ranking the NHL’s most valuable teams, Forbes magazine has ranked the Rangers amongst the league leaders in overall worth at $416 million. They are second to the Toronto Maple Leaves Leafs, who are valued at $470 million. Behind those two, there is a very significant difference, as the Montreal Canadiens rank third at $339. That’s a $76 million difference between #2 and #3. You can expect the Rangers to remain at #2 for a long time to come.
In terms of operating income, the Rangers are third, behind Toronto and Montreal at $27.7 million. The entire list can be viewed here. It is interesting to note that the Rangers revenue stream is just under $140 million, but between team payroll and operating expenses, their net income before taxes is just $27.7 million. That’s over $100 million in expenses, of which half goes to team salary. As much as people criticize the Dolan’s, at least they spend the money to attempt to make the team a contender.
Sticking with the operating income theme, there are just 16 NHL teams that are in the black (making a profit). That means 14 NHL teams (Calgary, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Ottawa, Carolina, Washington, San Jose, Buffalo, Islanders, Nashville, Columbus, Florida, Phoenix) are operating at a loss, with some of these being significant losses. Most of these teams shouldn’t really surprise you, but some, like Calgary, Carolina, Washington and San Jose do surprise me as operating at a loss.
San Jose has been a playoff team for quite a few years, and have been at the top of the league recently. Generally, success means greater attendance numbers and greater revenue. In this case, I guess it isn’t translating that well, as their operating income is just $84 million. Both the Kings and the Ducks, other SoCal teams, are out earning them in their gross income. Suffice it to say, that is very surprising, especially because the Kings have been atrocious until just a couple years ago. When your operating income is $84 million, and you spend right up to the cap every year (let’s round up to $57 million), it doesn’t leave you with much.
A lot of these teams operating at a loss have been hit hard by the current economic state. Calgary can definitely blame their decreased revenue on the economy, as they dropped 2% in overall value, which was just enough to put them in the red. The same can probably be said for Carolina and Washington. All three of these teams are drawing crowds, and all three are playoff teams with young superstars. The Caps, at least, increased in value by 15%, it’s amazing what Ovechkin does for a team.
The underlying impact of this, which is going to be missed by a lot of people, is that the NHL is getting hit hard by the global economic state. These numbers are going to be leveraged by the owners and the NHL front office when deciding what to do with the salary cap next season. It’s all but a guarantee that the salary cap will be decreasing next year.
Funny story, the Caps are operating at a $4.9 million loss right now. Michael Nylander’s salary this year: $5.5 million ($4.9 million cap hit). Just sayin’…
