Forbes does valuations for teams in all four major U.S. pro sports leagues, and the figures for the NBA were released today. As we know by now, we whisked quickly through the slide show, almost all the way to the end, in order to find the Timberwolves.
That's status quo with the chief tenants at Target Center. And it's status quo with all Minnesota teams.
The Wolves rank 26th in the NBA with a value of $430 million. Maybe that will improve a little once renovations to Target Center are complete, but they will still be playing in one of the NBA's oldest buildings.
What about the rest of the Forbes rankings, all from within the past year? The Wild? That squad ranks 19th in the NHL. The Twins? 20th. The Vikings? 21st.
In other words, all four squads are below average ... and none of them eclipse our TV market size rank (15th).
There are people more qualified to discuss what this means when it comes to overall economics as well as how it correlates to winning and losing. Certainly low-value teams have won titles while large-value teams have struggled.
But we're willing to bet there is at least some connection between those low numbers and this one: 1991. That's the last year a Minnesota team even played for a championship, let alone won one.
