Sports team investments have received outsized attention in recent years, with dozens of new funds chasing market-beating returns in a category that is not correlated with most other assets.

But not all leagues are created equal and returns varied wildly in 2025. In the WNBA, the average franchise value rose 180% year-over-year, according to Sportico’s May WNBA valuations. On the other end, MLS team values ticked up only 6%, as the league grapples with generating more media revenue.

Here is a look at the eight sports entities Sportico valued in 2025 and what is fueling those changes. Leagues are ranked in order of the average team value. Sportico’s NWSL team valuations, which were delayed by a few months, will return in early 2026.

NFL ($7.13 billion)

Owners debated for several years about opening their league to institutional investors, and if they did, what it might mean for franchise values. The pro-PE crowd got its way in 2024, and a flurry of LP deals were inked over the next 12 months.

A half-dozen teams sold stakes at valuations of at least $8 billion, led by the Koch family’s purchase of 10% of the New York Giants at a valuation just over $10.5 billion. Almost no one thinks these LP deal values are at premiums to control ones, as can happen in startup leagues or with tiny stakes.

Sportico’s NFL valuations were led by the Dallas Cowboys at $12.8 billion, with the Cincinnati Bengals at No. 32 ($5.5 billion). The one-year average jumped 20%.

“Private equity represents a sea change for the NFL, and you have almost every team talking to the approved PE firms,” Jeffrey Kaplan, Andalusian Sports Advisors co-founder, told Sportico in August. “It makes a lot of sense for NFL teams to consider the role of minority private equity capital.”

NBA ($5.51 billion)

The average NBA franchise value is up 113% from 2022, as a half-dozen teams were sold since then at ever-escalating prices. The latest was Mark Walter’s $10 billion buy of the Los Angeles Lakers that blew past the previous record sale for any sports team. William Chisholm’s group bought the Boston Celtics months earlier in a deal that valued the first tranche at $6.1 billion.

The Golden State Warriors led Sportico’s NBA valuations for the fifth straight year at $11.33 billion—only the Cowboys rank higher among global sports franchises. The league’s “get-in” price is $4 billion, with the Memphis Grizzles at No. 30, and the average rose 20%, matching the NFL’s gain.

League revenue is projected to hit $14.3 billion during the 2025-26 season, up 12% from last season. It marks Year 1 of the new media contracts with Amazon, ESPN/ABC and NBC that will bump each team’s TV revenue from $103 million to $143 million. The payouts rise roughly 7% per year on average, resulting in each team on track for $281 million for the 2034-35 season, based on a 30-team league. Forty years ago, each NBA team received roughly $1.5 million from national TV.

Formula 1 ($3.42 billion)

The 10 teams on the grid in 2025 rose 48% in value and are now more than double Sportico’s 2023 F1 team valuations, when the average was $1.61 billion. Ferrari was on top for the third straight year at $6.4 billion, but Mercedes ($5.88 billion) and McLaren ($4.73 billion) closed the gap at the top with their values up 49% and 78%, versus 34% for Ferrari.

“It’s a great time to be in Formula 1, as I think the pie is growing for everyone,” Jefferson Slack, Aston Martin’s head of commercial operations, said in a November interview. “The sport is moving towards a very healthy ecosystem. I think it is already there.”

Control sales are rare in F1, with only 10 teams ahead of Cadillac’s entry in 2026, but teams have sold LP stakes in recent years that reflect investor appetite for the race series that has thrived under Liberty Media’s ownership and the introduction of cost caps. The biggest deal was CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz buying 5% of Mercedes from its CEO and principal Toto Wolff at a $6 billion valuation.

MLB ($2.82 billion)

The New York Yankees lead the way at $8.39 billion, but the Los Angeles Dodgers ($7.73 billion) have closed the gap between the sport’s two financial titans. The valuation gap was $2.1 billion in 2022, but was $660 million in Sportico’s 2025 MLB valuations.

In 2024, the Dodgers became the first MLB team to reach $1 billion in gross revenue, thanks to the arrival of Shohei Ohtani, a World Series run and the biggest TV deal in the sport. The only other sports teams in the world to hit that mark are the Cowboys and LaLiga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The Dodgers’ 23% increase and double-digit bumps for the Philadelphia Phillies ($3.39 billion) and San Diego Padres ($2.31 billion) drove the average value up 7%, but the gains aren’t consistent all the way down as the league grapples with a series of challenges that are intertwined with revenue disparity, media distribution and looming labor negotiations.

Global Soccer ($2.33 billion)

Sportico’s 50 most valuable soccer teams include 19 MLS franchises and 14 EPL clubs. Europe dominates the top of the financial table with six Premier League clubs in the top 15 and three each from LaLiga and Serie A. But MLS heavily populates the bottom 70% of the list, led by Los Angeles FC at No. 16.

The top 30 non-MLS teams were valued in May at $2.33 billion on average, with Real Madrid first at $6.53 billion, up 8% and ahead of Manchester United ($6.09 billion). Real Madrid is the first soccer club to generate €1 billion in operating revenue, and its fortunes soared with the five-year, $1.2 billion renovation of its Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Revenue multiples remain the standard by which most bankers value sports franchises. In MLS, teams are valued at an average of 9.4 times revenue, versus 4.9 times for the non-MLS teams in the top-50 list. Relegation risk and lack of restraints on player spending drive the discount.

Five of the top 15 clubs had an operating loss greater than $60 million combined during their past two seasons. PSG lost $60 million during the 2023-24 season, but it was better than the $117 million and $400 million shortfalls the previous two years.

NHL ($2.1 billion)

The good vibes between the NHL and its players union are in sharp contrast to the four work stoppages over the past two decades, including the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season. In June, the two sides ratified a new four-year labor deal, more than a year ahead of the expiration of the current CBA. The newfound harmony and hard salary cap are both notches in the league’s growth story.

The average NHL franchise was up 17% from 2024 by Sportico’s calculations. The total is more than double the $1.01 billion average in 2022. By comparison, the three-year change for the NBA is 83%, followed by the NFL at 72% and MLB lagging at 22%. The Toronto Maple Leafs rank first at $4.25 billion, while the Columbus Blue Jackets are No. 32 at $1.3 billion.

Among the five biggest North American sports leagues, a pair of NHL teams had the biggest valuation gains, as the Carolina Hurricanes ($1.92 billion, up 49%) and Florida Panthers  ($1.89 billion, up 51%) converted dominant on-ice results into thriving businesses.

MLS ($721 million)

MLS is facing an inflection point in several ways, with a critical 24 months ahead covering a trio of major areas. The 2026 World Cup offers an opportunity to convert more casual sports fans—and more serious American soccer fans—into MLS fans. The league will pursue this objective as it changes its playing schedule to match the FIFA soccer calendar. And top of mind for many teams is how to unlock more value from media, after the league cut its 10-year Apple deal short three-and-a-half years to end in 2029.

The average team value rose 6% in Sportico’s January MLS valuations, with LAFC at No. 1 and worth $1.28 billion. Yet, the gains are not shared equally. Six teams rose in value at least 10%, fueled by new stadium projects or thriving local businesses, while a dozen teams inched up 3% or fewer.

The average club rose 31% from Sportico’s first MLS valuations in 2021, while the least-valuable club rose 22% during that time. For comparison, the NBA get-in price is up 127%, versus 122% in the NFL and just 10% for MLB, the latter of which has been hampered by the melting regional sports network model. The NHL had the greatest growth for its club ranked last, up 159%.

Real Salt Lake is the only MLS team sold during the past four years, but three teams are currently on the market in the Vancouver Whitecaps, San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders.

WNBA ($269 million)

WNBA values rose 180% compared to 2024, which is more than double the previous biggest year-over-year gain for a major sports league—that happened when Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 and drove NBA prices higher across the board.

The Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever had the biggest one-year value gain at 273%, ranking third overall with a $335 million valuation. The 2024 champion New York Liberty were second at $420 million, with the second-largest gain of 222%.

Meanwhile, the WNBA’s most valuable team didn’t play its first game until 2025. The Golden State Valkyries led our May WNBA team valuations at $500 million, a 10x return from the expansion fee Golden State Warriors ownership, led by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, agreed to pay in October 2023.

Lacob and Guber bought the Warriors in 2010 for $450 million, and it took nine years for the franchise value to rise 1,000%. For the Valkyries, it was less than two years.