Atlanta United edge Galaxy as most valuable MLS team

NEW YORK: Atlanta United debuted atop the list of most valuable Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs unveiled by Forbes magazine, edging the Los Angeles Galaxy thanks to record-setting spectator support.

The second-year club, who hadn’t produced enough data to earn a look on last year’s value list, drew an MLS playoff record 70,526 fans for a home playoff contest and averaged more than 50,000 spectators a match, selling more than one million tickets this season to top the value table at US$330mil (RM1.4bil).

Atlanta just missed topping the table on the field, trailing only New York Red Bulls and United drive merchandise sales, responsible for 25% of league-wide MLS online merchandise sales.

Five Atlanta players rank among the top five jersey sellers among MLS clubs.

“I think it’s one of the great expansion stories in the history of professional sports,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told Forbes. “The team continues to defy our expectations.”

Galaxy, who had topped the list, ranked second this year on US$320mil (RM1.34bil), a 1.6% boost from last year, with the Seattle Sounders third on US$310mil (RM1.3bil), just ahead of first-year expansion side Los Angeles FC on US$305mil (RM1.28bil), not including their new US$350mil (RM1.5bil) downtown stadium, and 2017 MLS Cup winner Toronto in fifth on US$290mil (RM1.2bil).

The average MLS team are valued at US$240mil (RM1bil), a 7.6% increase from 2017. At the bottom of the 23-teamanalysis was the Colorado Rapids at US$155mil (RM650mil), just trailing the Columbus Crew at US$160mil (RM671mil).

The Crew owner wants to own a club in Austin, Texas, while an Ohio group tries to purchase rights to keep the Crew in Columbus.

The Vancouver Whitecaps are 21st at US$165mil (RM691mil), US$3mil (RM12.6mil) behind the Montreal Impact and US$5mil (RM21mil) adrift of 19th-place Real Salt Lake.

An expansion team in Cincinnati announced in May will spend US$150mil (RM629mil) for a club, a 650% jump from 10 years ago and more than triple what the Montreal Impact paid to join in 2012.

At least 10 potential cities are in the hunt for a 28th expansion club, what MLS had said would be the last but that limit might yet be raised.

“I’m sure at some point in the off-season we’ll take a deep look at that and determine if anything will change in terms of our expansion strategy,” Garber said.

Garber said MLS is spending US$100mil (RM419mil) annually on player development and seeing some return with Alphonso Davies going to Bayern Munich in July for US$22mil (RM92mil), a record sum for MLS.

And with the 2026 World Cup coming to the United States and Canada as well as Mexico, the league that launched in the wake of a US-hosted 1996 World Cup.

“There’s no doubt for me or anybody else involved in MLS that the World Cup in 2026 is going to be, in many ways, the rocket fuel that will elevate the sport of football and MLS to entirely new levels,” Garber said.