It's surprisingly high considering the revenues and attendance of the teams. I guess it's the norm in today's world of sport inflation. The first part of this Forbes article probably explains the inflated values.
Billionaires have long believed in the potential of MLS. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and entertainment mogul Philip Anschutz were among MLS’ original owners, and a slew of others—including Tepper, Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto (Chicago Fire, 2018) and Qualtrics’ Ryan Smith (Real Salt Lake, 2022)—have since gotten in the game and driven up team values.
“It’s less of a financial hurdle to control an MLS team than [in] some other sports, so you do see more people who can do it,” says Rosenthal, who is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. “But I think people love it. They want to be a part of the community and the trajectory.” Forbes estimates there are at least 19 billionaires or members of billionaire families who have key ownership stakes in MLS franchises.
Aside from it being something new and trendy, it does have a lot of potential being tied to the world's most popular sport. There's great potential combining the heavy duty bucks of US sports entertainment and the world's most popular game. Consider that Real Madrid's value is ranked behind 11 US sports franchises or that out of the world's top 50 most valued franchises, 7 are football clubs and the rest are American teams made up of all the NFL teams, and some baseball basketball teams.
