Yankees Top Forbes' New List Valuing Every MLB Franchise

It's not a bad time to be an owner of a Major League Baseball team, but it certainly costs a good amount of money to get into the game. 

Mike Ozanian of Forbes calculated the values of all 30 MLB teams and discovered that the average value is at $744 million. He states that this is "23 percent more than a year ago and the largest increase since we began tracking MLB finances in 1998."

The big difference is the increase in revenue that teams get for television rights to nationally broadcasted games. Advanced media has also brought in an "estimated $650 million" to the league.

However, not all teams are worth the same amount of money. Playing in a large market helps, as well as having a great deal of fans willing to watch games on television. This leads to greater television contracts and eventually a lot more money. 

For this reason, the New York Yankees were valued as the No. 1 franchise at $2.3 billion. The organization owns its own network (YES) and generated $471 million in revenue in 2012. Playing in a major city like New York helps, but so does having a worldwide fanbase willing to shell out tons of money on tickets and merchandise.

Next on the list are the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were bought for $2 billion last year by a group including Magic Johnson. Still, Forbes only values the club at $1.615 billion, although it is unlikely former owner Frank McCourt gives any money back.

Instead, the new owners are anticipating a boost when a new television deal with Time Warner cable gets approved by the league. 

The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs are the only other two teams worth at least $1 billion, with the latter proving that winning does not always lead to the most amount of money.

Rounding out the top five are the Philadelphia Phillies, who are still on the way up after the club's recent success.

Here are the 10 most valuable organizations in baseball. For a complete list, click here.

Rank	Team	Value (in million)
1	New York Yankees	$2,300
2	Los Angeles Dodgers	$1,615
3	Boston Red Sox	$1,312
4	Chicago Cubs	$1,000
5	Philadelphia Phillies	$893
6	New York Mets	$811
7	San Francisco Giants	$786
8	Texas Rangers	$764
9	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	$718
10	St. Louis Cardinals	$716

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