Sportico is out with its latest valuations of NFL teams. Of course, there’s nothing remotely resembling pauperism among the league’s 32 franchises.
And as the sports business reporting site notes, the Pittsburgh Steelers are pretty much smack dab in the middle of the barons of sport listing:
“The Pittsburgh Steelers’ franchise has a valuation of $4.26 billion, 13th-highest among the NFL’s 32 teams,” the Tribune-Review says, citing Sportico’s numbers-crunching. That’s tops in the AFC North division.
The Steelers’ value has jumped 19 percent from last year, “when Sportico pegged the Steelers’ worth at $3.57 billion,” which also ranked 13th overall.
The highest NFL team valuation title goes to the Dallas Cowboys at $7.64 billion. The lowest valuation goes to the Detroit Lions at $2.86 billion.
Again, there are no welfare cases here. And just about every team, in one way or another, has been able to see its valuation grow thanks to taxpayer subsidies.
As the Trib notes, “Sportico says its franchise valuation estimations are ‘derived from metrics by which football-team transactions occur, including aggregating local and national revenues and factoring in a team-specific multiplier. This represents the fair market value of the team itself, excluding related businesses held by its owners.
“’It includes the value of each franchise’s 3.13 percent interest in the league’s properties, including NFL Network, NFL RedZone and its digital platforms, which are acquired/dispossessed in tandem with the sale of a team.’”
Team-related real estate holdings also factor into valuations calculated by Sportico, the Trib notes.
How the Steelers’ recently announced stadium naming rights deal with Acrisure figures into the calculation isn’t clear but one must assume that it’s part of the equation.
And it’s no small chunk of change. Neither the Steelers nor Acrisure will confirm what the full deal is. But it’s reported to span 15 years with an annual value of $10 million to $20 million.
The Steelers don’t own the stadium (the Sports & Exhibition Authority (SEA) does, supposedly on “behalf” of the public) but they solely profit from the naming rights money. And, frankly, given the situation, they should be compelled to publicly release full details of the deal.
Again, from Sportico’s website: “For franchises that do not own their venues, the value of a team’s lease—often with advantageous terms negotiated with municipal or state authorities—is captured in the Team Value category.”
Then there are the Steelers’ sweetheart development rights deal (with the Pirates) for the property between the football and baseball stadiums.
Neither team owns the publicly-held land (it’s owned by the SEA) but they certainly profit from it, too, and handsomely. But that metric does not appear to be part of Sportico’s calculations.
Still, the Steelers, given the public-subsidy circumstances, should be forced to reveal those, if not all, financials.
The bottom line remains major steps must be taken to remove the Steelers from the taxpayer teat.
We have laboriously gone through this minutiae to yet again make the case – a simple but compelling one, really – that it’s time for the Steelers (and the Pirates) to take full financial responsibility for the homes in which they play – mostly taxpayer-funded homes that have allowed them to profit, profit handsomely and then some.
Or, as we should say, “much some.”
Taxpayers never should have been volunteered in the first place to pay for these stadiums. The teams certainly had the financial wherewithal to build them 20 years ago. And they clearly have the even greater wherewithal to take them over today.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
