My junior year of college is coming to an end, and I am finally starting to take classes that I am interested in about, such as classes about the stock market, margin trading, brokerage firms, valuations, etc. While I am starting to build my portfolio, I thought of some businesses I am passionate about; naturally the first thing that came to my mind was baseball, so I wondered if I could buy a stock of the New York Yankees. Unfortunately I found out that the Yankees aren’t publicly traded. Looking to understand why I tried to figure out what teams have been publicly traded in the past.
In all four major American sports, the NFL’s Green Bay Packers are the only team owned by their fans. Unlike traditional stocks like Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and General Electric (NYSE: GE), the Packers only sell stock when they need money to renovate Lambeau Field. Most recently in 2012 they were selling stock for $250. Despite the NFL rule that each club needs to be owned by a single person, Green Bay has been able to get away with it because they have been publicly traded since 1923 before the rule was even instituted. In the past the Packers stock hasn’t been a great deal for investors because there were no dividends issued, the stock could not be traded, and the laws did not offer much protection. However, the Packers still managed to get 350,000 shareholders.
Unlike the NFL, baseball ownership is slightly different because in baseball the commissioner pretty much hand picks the owners. For example, the commissioner in 2010, Bud Selig, turned down Mark Cuban’s bid for the Texas Rangers because of his reputation for public tirades that he displayed as the Dallas Mavericks owner. As a result many teams like the Atlanta Braves, owned by Liberty Media, are owned by privately held companies. Although the Atlanta Braves are not on the stock market per se, they are listed on all of Liberty Media’s financial reports. Therefore if you buy a stock of Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LMCA), then the earnings of the Braves will in some way effect your earnings as an investor.
Of all of the mainstream sports in America over the last 20 years, the MLB has been able to maintain the best relationship between the players and owners. Since 1995, the NBA has faced three stoppages, the NHL has faced two, and the NFL has faced one while the MLB did not face any. In a way you can say the MLB is the country’s model of labor peace. This peace, however, is not guaranteed to last forever. The last collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2011 for five years, which expires this year on December 1. The commissioner at the time, Bud Selig, has been replaced by Robert Manfred, who negotiated last time on the side of the owners and the players union has a new president.
It seems that the league has been doing its job for the last 20 years in all aspects, especially with Forbes valuation of the league at $36 billion with an average team value of $1.2 billion. However, with a new commissioner continued success is anything but guaranteed. Certain baseball teams, like the New York Mets, could have benefitted strongly from being publicly traded with the Bernie Madoff scam a few years ago. However, the owners are not willing to give up their control of the cartel.
With the new labor talks I am sure they will discuss last place teams intentionally tanking a season, an international draft, and shortening the season. While these discussions are necessary for the league, as a business student, I would still like to know—why can’t I own a small stake in the Yankees.
