NHL Team Values 2022: New York Rangers On Top At $2.2 Billion

For the eighth consecutive year, the New York Rangers are the NHL’s most valuable team, worth $2.2 billion, 10% more than last year. The Blueshirts have been in four Eastern Conference finals since 2012 but have only won one Stanley Cup in the last 82 years (1994). Yet the Rangers tied with the Los Angeles Kings for the most revenue ($249 million) last season and were the only team to rake in over $100 million in non-premium-ticket revenue.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, ranked second, are worth $2 billion, 11% more than a year ago. The Leafs have had less success on the ice than the Rangers, last hoisting the Cup in 1967 and winning only one playoff series since 2004. But playing in Canada’s biggest market helped the Leafs pull in over $90 million in total media revenue, second to the Montreal Canadiens, the only NHL team to break the $100 million barrier.

There were a handful of transactions during the past 12 months that illustrate that it’s not only teams in the biggest markets that are increasing in value. Last month, Ted Leonsis sold a small stake in Monumental Sports and Entertainment that valued the Washington Capitals at $1.2 billion, 29% more than Forbes valued the team in 2021. Last January, Arctos bought a 20% stake in the Tampa Bay Lightning and 10% of the Minnesota Wild. The Lightning transaction valued the entire team at $1 billion, 54% more than our figure just one month prior, while the Wild enterprise value was $850 million, 26% above Forbes’ value.

More deals are on the way. The National Hockey League is close to approving the sale of the Nashville Predators to former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. The pending purchase, scheduled to take place in four parts over the next three years, places an enterprise value north of $800 million on the team, according to people familiar with the deal. We pegged the value of the Predators at $600 million a year ago. The Ottawa Senators are also on the block and could fetch more than $800 million. Forbes’ valuation in 2021? $525 million. Click here for the full list of NHL team values and their financial information.

The optimism is fueled by the league’s new national media deals with ESPN and TNT that began last season and the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which limits players to 50% of hockey-related income (a record $5.4 billion last season). The TV deals have given a big boost to the top line (the networks are going to pay the league a combined $650 million annually over seven years, nearly three times the previous deal with NBC) and strong ratings.

The 50-50 split between owners and players has made all the difference to the teams’ bottom lines, especially when you consider the 2014 change from the players getting 57% of hockey-related revenue to the current half. Revenue per team last season averaged $185 million, compared with the previous record of $164 million in 2019, the last season not impacted by Covid-19. Operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) averaged $49 million, nearly double the previous high of $25 million in both 2019 and 2018. Seven percentage points might not seem like much, but think about this: From 2006 through 2013, when the players’ cut was 57%, the league’s average operating income was $5.4 million. Since 2014, when players’ take fell to 50%, teams’ operating income has averaged $21 million when you toss out the 2021 season, which was cut from 82 regular season games to 56 games due to the pandemic.

NHL Teams’ Average Operating Income

Profits have soared since the players’ share of hockey-related revenue was lowered to a maximum of 50% beginning with the 2013 season, from 57%, where it stood from 2008 through 2012. The notable exception is the 2021 season, which was reduced from 84 to 56 games due to Covid.

Methodology: Our valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) and include the economics of each team’s current arena deal but not the value of the real estate itself. The owners of the New York Islanders, for example, own a significant stake in New York Arena Partners, which operates UBS Arena. So we allocate a portion of the arena’s revenue and expenses to the hockey team.

Revenue and operating income are adjusted for revenue sharing and net of arena revenue that goes towards arena debt service, but exclude the $350 million split by 31 teams (the expansion Seattle Kraken were excluded) from the league’s sale of its remaining 10% stake in BamTech to Walt DisneyDIS -0.5% in 2021. The Rangers are part of MSG Sports, a public company that includes stock compensation and other expenses in its reported financials that the other hockey teams don’t have. To make comparisons more equal with the other 31 NHL teams, we excluded these expenses from the Rangers figures.

All figures are in U.S. dollars based on the average U.S.-Canada exchange rate during the 2021-22 season.

The information used to compile our valuations primarily came from the teams, sports bankers, team executives, media consultants and public documents, like arena lease agreements and bond documents.