The Athletics valuation keeps increasing as the Major League Baseball team’s Las Vegas ballpark keeps rising out of the ground on the south Strip.
The A’s latest valuation tabulated by CNBC’s lead sports reporter Mike Ozanian, came in at $2.5 billion, a $500 million spike from their $2 billion valuation last year.
As work continues on the A’s $2 billion Las Vegas ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2028 at the southeast corner of the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, so does the hype and the realization of revenue generation that will come with a relocation to Southern Nevada, according to Ozanian.
“It’s becoming clearer as the new ballpark takes shape what the team is likely to generate in revenues from the ballpark,” Ozanian said. “The valuation is based on what their revenues are likely to be. … It should be well over $500 million.
“There’s some progress in the ballpark; they’re moving along well on that. It’s looks like they’re in the timeline (for a 2028 completion).”
Different team, similar path
Ozanian also said the A’s are making progress on raising capital via selling minority stakes in the team to put toward the costs of building the stadium. The A’s reportedly are looking to raise $550 million and have netted reported deals with concessionaire Aramark and a Korean group that includes former a member of Korean pop group BTS and a former MLB pitcher.
The A’s valuation will keep moving higher as the realization of the Las Vegas A’s comes to fruition.
For example, Ozanian said the San Diego Padres are worth $3.1 billion, good enough to rank No. 10 in MLB, and brought in $484 million in revenue last year. If the A’s hit the $500 million in revenue a season when they move to Las Vegas, the team has the ability to be as valuable as the Padres.
“I don’t think $2.5 billion is a final spot for the Athletics,” Ozanian said. “It’s going to continue to climb as their ballpark progresses and should they be successful in getting to those revenue levels ($500 million), their valuation is going to continue to rise.”
The Raiders saw a similar trajectory value-wise when they relocated from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020. In the years before their move, but after it was announced they were making the move, the team was almost last in valuation in the NFL and jump to the top 10 in the latest ranking.
New deals
The A’s are on a similar tract, but upcoming MLB labor and television deals could affect every team’s valuation.
MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement expires in December. Not having a solid CBA in place, could affect how much every team valuations will rise in the next year.
“You don’t know what speed bumps are going to be ahead should baseball have a work stoppage, a long work stoppage, then you’re going to obviously have revenue streams that aren’t going to be coming in,” Ozanian said. “So that could be a speed bump.”
Then, MLB is slated to renegotiate its media rights agreements, which are set to expire after the 2028 season. The A’s could see an increase in valuation, which includes the get more than $50 million a season they get from their regional sports network, NBC Sports California.
Ozanian thinks the MLB’s new media rights deal should be significantly higher than the $1.8 billion the league now has.
“If you look at their TV ratings and contrast that with the NBA; baseball’s ratings are right there,” Ozanian said. “In fact, the World Series has been doing a lot better than the NBA Finals over the last several years.
“They have great inventory. The ratings for their national games are right on par with the NBA and the NBA is getting $6.9 billion a year. Now, I’m not telling you that baseball is going to get $6.9 billion a year, but it would seem to me they should certainly be getting over $1.8 billion a year.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
