(06-14-2016 12:31 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  $500M for a hockey team??? Sorry, but hockey either already is or it will be the #5 pro sport, once MLS really gets going (might take some time).

Sports franchise values are in another universe because (a) there is a scarcity of teams that are available at any given time and (b) the people that are competing to buy those teams happen to be billionaires where the status and ego trip from owning a pro sports team is more important than the cost of the team itself. Just look at the list of NFL owners - these are people that have been insanely successful building huge blue chip companies, yet their *fame* comes from owning an NFL franchise. Would the average person have any idea who Robert Kraft or Jerry Jones was if they were "merely" fabulously successful business people but didn't own NFL teams? Buying a sports team is the closest thing that you can get to buying *fame*, which is totally intoxicating to people that already own every material thing that they could possibly buy.

Remember that the freaking *Clippers* (not the Lakers) sold for $2 billion. We're basically at the point where buying any MLB or NBA franchise for "only" $1 billion is a "bargain" and you can expect the entry level for even the worst NFL franchise to be around $2 billion. As a result, a $500 million expansion fee for an NHL franchise isn't completely outlandish.