The world’s 20 most valuable sports empires are worth a combined $269 billion, 20% more than a year ago. The increase in sports empire valuations has been fueled by escalating prices for sports properties. In March, Stephen Ross sold 1% of his sports portfolio — which includes controlling stakes in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium and a Formula 1 race as well as a minority stake in the Miami Open tennis tournament — at a record $12.5 billion valuation. CNBC pegs the control valuation for Ross’ share of these assets to be worth $15.23 billion, 59% more than a year ago. Ross moves up to No. 6 on this year’s sports empires ranking, from No. 15 last year. In October, Mark Walter, who houses his sports assets inside the holding company TWG Global , purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers for $10 billion, the richest price ever paid for a control stake in a sports team, according to people familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Other sports properties in TWG’s portfolio include MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the English soccer team Chelsea, the Cadillac Formula 1 team and the Professional Women’s Hockey League. TWG didn’t qualify for CNBC’s sports empires list a year ago. But after the purchase of the Lakers, TWG’s share of its sports assets are worth a combined $14.26 billion, good enough for eighth place this year. The most valuable sports empire by far remains Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which CNBC values at $26.05 billion, 23% more than last year and $8.45 billion more than the No. 2-ranked Jones family. No other sports empire on our list owns controlling stakes in teams as diverse — NFL, NBA, NHL, Premiere League soccer — or as widely spread out geographically — Los Angeles, Denver, London — as KSE. Nor is any other sports empire on our list as invested in real estate ownership of its teams’ stadiums as KSE, which owns SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area, the Ball Arena in Denver and Emirates Stadium in London. As the value of NFL and NBA franchises continues to be much higher than that of MLB , NHL and soccer teams, sports portfolios that do not include NFL and NBA teams are less likely to appear among the top 20 empires. City Football Group, for example, which owns controlling stakes in the English soccer team Manchester City and MLS’ NYCFC, was ranked No. 20 in CNBC’s list last year at a valuation of $7.65 billion. Despite being worth $8.05 billion this year, it didn’t crack the top 20. Methodology To be eligible for CNBC’s rankings, a person or entity must be the majority owner of at least one sports team valued at $1 billion or more and hold additional sports-related investments worth at least $500 million. We valued more than 40 empires and included the top 20. Our valuations of the empires represent control ownership. CNBC’s valuations include the person or entity’s share of its sports-related assets. For example, for AMB Sports & Entertainment, ranked No. 20 on our list, only the roughly three-quarters of the Atlanta Falcons owned by AMB is included in its valuation of $9 billion. A person familiar with the Falcons provided AMB’s ownership stake in the team and asked not to be named because the matter is private. Likewise, only sports properties are included in our valuation. For instance, the $14 billion valuation for No. 9-ranked AEG Worldwide excludes its music and hotel businesses. For NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and soccer teams, CNBC began with its own official valuation rankings. For other sports teams and businesses, it relied on input from owners and executives, sports bankers and public filings. In cases in which CNBC could not verify reports from people representing the empires it valued, CNBC made informed estimates based on comparable transactions. To determine the enterprise values of these empires, CNBC calculated the total value of the person’s or entity’s share of individual sports assets and then applied a multiple — ranging from 1.1 to 1.3 — to the sum. The multiple used depended on the teams and other sports properties owned and the percentage of these assets owned — control stakes are worth more than minority interests. Then we adjusted the multiples further to reflect stadium improvements, such as the renovation of Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s Capital One Arena . We also adjusted for recent transactions, such as the limited-interest sale of the Cleveland Browns to Arctos at a $9 billion valuation and Fenway Sports Group’s sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Hoffmann family. Terms of the Arctos purchase were provided by two people with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named because the matter is private. — CNBC’s Hector Fadraga contributed to this report. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is also known as KSE and that it owns the Ball Arena in Denver. A previous version misstated the company’s abbreviation and the name of the arena.
