A third of US baseball teams' values decline-Forbes

CHICAGO, April 23 - The wealth gap in Major League Baseball is widening as a third of the sport's teams saw their values decline, according to an annual survey by Forbes magazine.

Overall team values increased an average of 1 percent over the past year to $482 million, led by the New York Yankees, which saw their value jump 15 percent to $1.5 billion, according to the survey, which was released late on Wednesday.

The Yankees had the biggest percentage increase in value on the list partly because they moved into a lucrative, new $1.5 billion ballpark this season.

League revenue, including funds used to finance stadium debt, rose 5.5 percent to $5.8 billion last year, while operating income increased 1.8 percent to another record at $501 million, according to the magazine.

However, Forbes said the decline in value of 10 teams was the most since 2004 as the U.S. recession has hurt franchises with a lot of debt or stadiums in cities with high unemployment.

Major League Baseball, like most U.S. sports leagues, has been hurt by the recession, which has led consumers and companies to cut spending. League attendance could fall as much as 10 percent this year, while revenue may come in flat, baseball officials have said.

The Washington Nationals had the biggest decline in value, at 12 percent to $406 million, while high unemployment in Michigan and Ohio was a factor in the value of the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians falling 9 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

The Texas Rangers saw their value fall 2 percent to $405 million. The team is owned by billionaire Tom Hicks, whose Hicks Sports group did not make a recent quarterly interest payment on $525 million in loans as it seeks to restructure the debt or bring in new minority investors.

Other teams with values that declined included the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rounding out the top five after the Yankees were the New York Mets ($912 million, up 11 percent), Boston Red Sox ($833 million, up 2 percent), Los Angeles Dodgers ($722 million, up 4 percent) and the Chicago Cubs ($700 million, up 9 percent).

The Cubs, along with Wrigley Field and a stake in a local sports cable TV network, are being sold by the Tribune Co for $900 million to a group led by Chicago investment bank chief Tom Ricketts, the son of the founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

The complete Forbes list can be found at www.forbes.com/mlb.