When it comes to investment opportunities, few busine ses have shown as much growth potential as sports organizations over the last half decade(except maybe Apple).
From the to multi-billion dollar sales of NBA franchises, sportis a growth industry and Major League Baseball is no exception. In fact, Forbes's most recent pegs the year-over-year growth in total value of the 30 franchises at an astounding 48 percent. More and more of that value, it seems, is derived from the pure entertainment value Adolis Garcia Jersey of live sports and the fan interaction that is so important to all busine ses these days.
So how can we quantify the engagement that is helping these teams reach unheard of valuations? A new report from us over ata signed a dollar value to each fan and media interaction with MLB clubs over the last year in anticipation of Opening Day, trying to determine exactly how much exposure each team gained on the vast social web.
This"media value" statistic takes into account not only how often a team was mentioned acro s the web, but also how much exposure was gained from that mention and whether that mention expre sed a positive or negative sentimentality using a $5-per-thousand impre sions base component.We tracked mentionson Twitter, Facebook, news media, social Paul Goldschmidt Jersey media, forums, blogs and comment sections, among other sources.
Gauging just how valuable each team's media footprint ended up giving usa window into each team's overall value in the sports community.
Let's start with the bottom 20 teams:
30. Chicago White Sox $20.8 million
29. Toronto Blue Jays $28.1 million
28. Milwaukee Brewers $33.7 million
27.Minnesota Twins $45.1 million
26. Colorado Rockies $47.1 million
25. Arizona Diamondbacks $58.5 million
24. San Diego Padres $63.1 million
23. Oakland Athletics $81.4 million
22. Tampa Bay Rays $94.7 million
21. Cleveland Indians $100.3 million
20. Seattle Mariners $120.8 million
19. Philadelphia Phillies $132.5 million
18. Cincinnati Reds $132.8 million
17. Texas Rangers $140.0 million
16. Washington Nationals $140.4 million
15. Pittsburgh Pirates $143.9 million
14. Miami Marlins $144.4 million
13. Atlanta Braves $148.6 million
12. Houston Astros $155.9 million
11. Detroit Tigers$162.4 million
The bottom two-thirds of these rankings are heavily swayed by the methodology behind our media value metric. The Rangers, for instance, occupy one of the country's largest media markets, but scored the league's worst positive-to-negative comment ratio, at just above a 1:1 rate. That lack of positivity likely kept Texas out of the top 10 in media value for the year.
Alternatively, a team like the Pirates was only bolstered by the positivity expre sed by the fans about the team's characteristically scrappy play, helping Pittsburgh land in the top 15 overall for media value.
On to the top 10:
10. Los Angeles Angels $163.2 million
Littlecompares to superstar power to drive online conversations. In the case of the Angels, an American League MVP in Mike Trout and one of the highest-paid player in the game in Albert Pujols was enough to spur valuable conversations for the AL West champs.
9. New York Mets $167.2 million
The Genesis Cabrera Jersey Mets benefited greatly in the online conversations frontfrom the ma s media market occupied by New York's younger baseball sibling. That's not to suggestMets fans had nothing to talk about, however, as David Wright, All Star Daniel Murphy and NL Rookie of the YearJacob DeGrom had plenty to do with the Mets' continued popularity.
8. St. Louis Cardinals $170.5 million
A now seemingly foregone conclusion of October baseball is the inclusion of the Cardinals and 2014 was no different St. Louis's top-driving sentiment word in all online conversations was "win" by a nearly 3:1 margin and another berth in the NLCS was enough to land the Cards securelyin the top 10.
7. Baltimore Orioles $185.3 million
Perhaps a surprise entrant in the media value top 10, the Baltimore Orioles had one of the league's best conversational sentiment scope over the last year, with words like "right," "good" and "best" driving positivity about the AL East champions. Plus, a stopin the ALCS for the first time since 1997was huge for Baltimore's overall exposure.
6. Chicago Cubs $187.9 million
While 2014 might not have gone to plan for fans Chris Beck Jersey of the last-place-finishing Cubs, the new seasonis looking bright. Positivity about the Cubs' future given recent front office moves, combined with the Chicago media market and acertain film-inspired prediction for the 2015 season have brought the Cubs to the upper echelon of media value earners in the league.
5. Boston Red Sox $233.1 million
Not even a last-place finish in the AL East could discourage the fans of the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox. On our sentiment scale of -100 to +100 representing tonality of conversations, the Red Sox earned a +50 average daily score over the course of the last year, one of the league's best overall scores despite finishing 20 games under .500 in 2014. With all this uninterrupted support, are things due for a turnaround in 2015?
4. Kansas City Royals $253.8 million
The surprise of the 2014 season also happened to be one of the league's best stories, as the Kansas City Royals bested the A's in a dramatic AL Wild Card game only Mark McGwire Jersey to then reel off seven straight victories in the American League postseason to reach the World Series for the first time since 1985. When words like "dream," "amazing," Roger Maris Jersey "fun" and "love" appear in the top 25 most influential sentiment words for an entire year for your team, you must be doing something right and the Royals certainly were in 2014.
3. New York Yankees $258.5 million
Finishing second in the knock-down, drag-out AL East would be an accomplishment for really any fan base other than the Yankees' faithful. Instead, the result on the back of a set of disappointing seasons was only an underwhelming outcome to another year for Yankees fans. Despite all that, the 27-time World Series winners were able to land in the No. 3 spot among media value earners largely because media value's "all news is good news" adage rewards coverage above all else. And the Yankees have rarely suffered for lack of coverage.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers $311.4 million
Post-season awards give teams and players the continuing pre s coverage and attention that so many desire, but when the Cy Young and MVP winner is the same player, and he's on your team, things can only go well for media value coverage. Pair Clayton Kershaw's unprecedented accomplishmen