When you think of Professional sports and the money that these clubs make immediately Professional basketball, football, baseball, and hockey are most likely the sports that pop in your head. While those Professional organizations do bring in a ton of income, lets not forget Professional soccer. These Professional soccer clubs bring in just as much if not more income than some of these professional organization in other sports. Major clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona are worth over 3 billion. Below is a link to a chart showing the top 7 most valuable soccer teams in the world.
http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/the-7-most-valuable-soccer-teams-on-the-planet.html/?a=viewall
It’d be interesting to parse out why each team is valued the amount that it is. In other words, what influences a team’s valuation the most: its performance in matches, its global brand image or its leaders’ business savvy? David Goldblatt talks extensively about how Premier League executives struck it rich through the sale of league broadcasting rights to satellite television companies like BSkyB. At the same time, though, he notes that these teams are constantly in debt due to massive expenditures on everything from stadium improvements to star player acquisitions. This reality makes me think a lot of why teams are valuated so highly is the strength of their brand; after all, an FCB or Arsenal jersey is recognizable across the world in a way only luxury auto brands or McDonald’s could claim to be.
What is interesting about this is that it may only apply to the American population. According to Forbes magazine 3 of the top 5 most valuable sports teams in 2015 were soccer clubs. Real Madrid was number 1 followed by Barcelona at 4 and Manchester United at 5. The perception in America may be that Professional Soccer generates less revenue because the MLS is a fledgling league compared to the popular European ones such as the Barclays Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A. When broadcast on the television, MLS games always seem quite empty compared to those of other popular American sports like football and basketball, but when comparing the turnout between a BPL game and an NFL game, both stadiums always look filled to max capacity. In this way, this perception that soccer is less valuable compared to other sports only really applies in an American context because the sport is less popular here than in other countries.
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45fdlkd/1-real-madrid/