Boston Bruins on the Forbes The Business of Hockey List
Boston Bruins #5 on the Forbes The Business of Hockey List
www.forbes.com
The average value of an NHL team is now $1.33 billion, 29% higher than a year ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs, worth $2.8 billion, are the league’s most valuable team. The Leafs, are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which also owns Scotiabank Arena, and like most of the teams in the top third of Forbes’ annual hockey valuations, MLSE controls the economics to its arena and derives tremendous scale by also owning the arena’s other tenant, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
The Maple Leafs dethroned the New York Rangers, who were No. 1 for eight consecutive years. The Rangers rose 20% in value to $2.65 billion, and also share their arena with an NBA team, the New York Knicks. But the Blue Shirts’ owner, publicly traded MSG Sports (controlled by the Dolan family), splits some of Madison Square Garden’s revenue with MSG Entertainment, also publicly traded.
Rounding out the top five, the Montreal Canadiens ($2.3 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($2 billion) and Boston Bruins ($1.9 billion) also have owners that own their arenas. Except for the Canadiens, each of the top five teams play in major markets. But Montreal, of course, has a devout hockey fanbase. So much so that its games are televised on both an English and French sports network, giving the team more than $70 million in local television revenue last season, the most in the league.
