Alongside the cool autumn weather finally overtaking Canada, comes the apex of the professional sports calendar, with NHL and NBA seasons getting underway, the NFL in full bloom and playoffs underway in Major League Baseball and shortly, Major League Soccer.
It’s nirvana for the nation’s sports fans and moneymaking time for Canada’s broadcasters and related media agencies. The biggest profiteers are the teams themselves, seeing overflowing revenues as their valuations get larger and larger.
Time for a look at the teams with the most substantial valuations in the country.
It was announced in September that Bell was selling its 37.5% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Canada’s most glittering sports conglomerate. The price tag for Rogers to double its ownership was $4.7 billion CDN.
That would value the company overall at roughly $12.5B, or 9.2 billion in U.S. dollars.
The crown jewel of the company, and Canada’s mostly highly valued sports franchise is the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, valued at $4.11B USD by Sportico in 2023. This places the Raptors 9th in the NBA. (The Golden State Warriors are 1st with a valuation of $8.28B).
It can be shocking to some that the MLSE basketball team surpassed the hockey team in value but there actually should be no surprise. NBA media rights money dwarfs that of the NHL, and the appeal of NBA superstars rivals those of the most popular sports and leagues in the world, including soccer and F1.
The Raptors’ lone NBA championship came just over five years ago, still within short-term memory of a fan base which stretches from St. John’s to Victoria. The team’s prospects this year are questionable. They lost 57 of 82 games last season and made no significant upgrades to their roster. But with a new gargantuan broadcast deal set to kick in at the start of the 2025-26 season, the Raptors’ value will continue to balloon, regardless of on-court performance.
The second highest valued franchise in the country is the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is no short-term memory of a championship because it hasn’t happened since 1967. Yet the Leafs became the most valuable franchise in the NHL last year, according to Forbes, their first time in that slot since 2014. Their $2.8B USD assessment topped the previous number 1 – the New York Rangers – by $150 million. Despite the lack of a Stanley Cup since the league expanded from its Original Six lineup, the Leafs are a financial powerhouse and the economic model that most other teams aspire to.
One team that does not aspire to be like the Leafs is the Montreal Canadiens, the third most valuable sports franchise in the country, appraised at 2.3 billion American dollars by Forbes. They are the last Canadian team to win the Cup in 1993. They most recently played in the Cup Finals in 2021 and have won 24 times in their history. Only the New York Yankees with 27 World Series titles have won more in North American sports. The Habs aren’t expected by many to make a title run this year, but they are considered a young, up-and-coming team. Whenever they hit bottom they seem to quickly rise back up.
In May of this year, Statista valued baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays at $2.1 billion USD. This would make them the 4th richest franchise in Canada. The team was purchased by Rogers Communications in 2000 for $137 million. Without doubt, Rogers has seen its sports investments rise exponentially. However, the Jays are now in a championship drought of their own. It’s been over 31 years since Joe Carter’s walkoff three-run homer propelled the Jays to a second consecutive World Series win. Eight years have passed since the Jays won any round of the playoffs. But their popularity endures. In 2024, they averaged over 33,000 fans at every home game, good for 9th among the 30 teams in Major League Baseball. Much like the Leafs, the Blue Jays have become iconic in Toronto, and will generate massive revenue, win or lose.
According to Forbes, the New York Yankees are the most valuable baseball team at $7.55 billion USD.
The 5th most valuable sports franchise in Canada is the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. According to Forbes they are worth $1.85B USD, good for seventh in the league, with a 45% rise in one year. But that one year was 2023-2024, before their unforgettable run to the Stanley Cup Finals which saw them fall just short in Game 7 to the Florida Panthers. Led by arguably the biggest star in hockey – Connor McDavid – the Oilers assuredly increased their value during the 2024 Playoffs and start this season as a Stanley Cup favourite. Off the ice, McDavid’s star power ensures a larger fan structure outside of Edmonton, and he will likely play for Canada at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, the NHL’s first appearance at the Olympics since 2014. The team, and the league, will be certain to leverage his burgeoning popularity, especially with a new TV deal to be negotiated to start after the ’25-26 season. The NHL is already placing games on Amazon Prime this year with many observers predicting a stronger presence on streaming services, and tidier profits.
While they might be ahead of the Leafs and Canadiens on the ice, they are unlikely to surpass them on the spreadsheet. That doesn’t mean their growth won’t be impressive. A first Stanley Cup for the Oilers since 1990 could speed their ascent into the $2.5B club.
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