MLS Values Are Rising, But the League’s Business Story Is Still Local

Atlanta’s Place in the League’s Next Era

Atlanta has always been one of the clearest proof points in MLS.

A club that arrived with ambition, scale, and a fanbase that immediately made the league feel bigger than it had before. So when Sportico released its latest MLS valuations, it felt like more than a business exercise. It felt like another snapshot of where this league is headed as it approaches the World Cup years and the next phase of its growth.

Kurt Badenhausen’s work is the kind of data that stops you for a second.

Inter Miami at $1.45 billion. LAFC right behind. The average club nearing $800 million. Expansion markets thriving. New stadium projects finally taking shape in the places that matter most.

On paper, it looks like a league arriving.

But the real value of Badenhausen’s reporting is not the leaderboard. It is the context behind it, and that came through clearly when he joined Jon Nelson on SDH AM. MLS is still a league being evaluated as a projection, not a finished product, and that is why the valuations feel both exciting and uneven at the same time.

MLS is growing. The question is not whether it survives.

The question is whether it grows fast or grows slow.

A League Built on Local Strength

One of the most important threads in Badenhausen’s conversation was simple: MLS clubs are not being lifted by the kind of guaranteed national media revenue that defines the NFL or NBA.

In those leagues, ownership is closer to buying a dividend stock. The league office cuts a massive check every year. Media rights create a floor that stabilizes franchise value even when the on-field product fluctuates.

MLS does not have that same safety net, at least not yet.

The Apple deal solved one problem, the regional sports network collapse that is melting down Major League Baseball’s media model. But it has not created the financial engine many expected when it was announced. Teams are still only netting a few million dollars per club from the media side once production costs are accounted for.

That is not enough to transform the league on its own.

So MLS remains, at its core, a local business league right now. The clubs that are thriving are the ones that can maximize matchday revenue, premium seating, sponsorship, and control of their venues.

The strongest valuations are not just soccer stories. They are infrastructure stories.

The league is being built gate by gate, suite by suite, sponsor by sponsor.

“We’ve seen local markets that have had tremendous success as ticketing and sponsorship businesses.”

That is where MLS is strongest today, and it is where the league’s next steps will be built.

Big Markets Finally Moving

Another point Badenhausen emphasized is one that has quietly shaped MLS for years.

Expansion has been a success story. Mid-sized markets like Austin, Cincinnati, and Columbus have built thriving local businesses. They have become proof that MLS can own a city.

But one of MLS’ biggest obstacles was always getting its biggest markets outside of Los Angeles to function like big markets.

Chicago spent years searching for a stadium solution. NYCFC spent years playing as a tenant while trying to build a permanent home. Those were not small problems. Those were structural limitations on what MLS could become.

Now, that tide is turning.

Chicago is moving toward a privately financed stadium project. NYCFC’s venue is finally real. Miami is opening its new building. Even New England has traction.

When big-market clubs stop being complicated and start being complete, the league’s ceiling changes.

“There’s a lot to point to in terms of local markets that are having success.”

MLS does not need every team to be Miami.

But it does need Chicago and New York to look like Chicago and New York.

The Warning Lights at the Bottom

Sportico’s valuations also show something we rarely see in North American sports: a handful of clubs went down.

Vancouver. San Jose. Montreal.

That is not an MLS crisis, but it is a reminder that growth is not uniform. Badenhausen was candid about what the market looks like for clubs that lack facility clarity or control of their revenue streams. In MLS, the investment thesis is not just about market size. It is about stability, infrastructure, and a clean path forward.

Uncertainty has a cost.

Those are negatives, yes.

But they are also opportunities, because the league now knows exactly where the pressure points are: stadium control, local revenue strength, and long-term facility planning.

These are solvable problems.

Austin and the Case for the Local Model

If you want to understand why MLS can still be a growth market even without massive media checks, look at Austin.

Austin FC has hit the ground running since day one. Sold-out matches. Top-10 revenue. Expansion potential. Corporate inflow as the city becomes a tech hub. And perhaps most importantly, it is the only major professional sports game in town.

Austin is proof of concept.

“Austin has hit the ground running… sold out every single game.”

MLS can build enormous value by owning a market completely, even if it is not one of the traditional Big Four cities. That is why investors still see a path. Buying an MLS club at $500 million with a plausible route to $1 billion is, in some ways, a clearer upside play than buying an NFL team at $9 billion and trying to double it.

MLS is still in its climb.

Not Make-or-Break, Just Pace of Growth

The easiest mistake to make with MLS coverage is to frame every crossroads as existential.

Is the Apple deal a failure? Is the calendar flip a gamble? Is Messi the only thing holding it up?

That is not the right lens.

MLS is not on the edge of collapse. MLS is on the edge of acceleration. The league is not deciding whether it will exist in 2030. It is deciding how big it wants to be, and how quickly it wants to get there.

Grow fast or grow slow.

And there is optimism in that.

The calendar flip will open summer stadium dates for concerts and events. It will align transfer windows. It will move MLS Cup away from football’s shadow. The next media negotiation will be a reset, not a verdict. The World Cup will be an opportunity to convert casual fans into domestic ones, not just a month-long spectacle.

MLS does not need perfection. It needs momentum with purpose.

Atlanta, MLS, and What Comes Next

Badenhausen noted that MLS is still being defined in real time, and that is exactly what makes this moment compelling.

Atlanta has lived that evolution. It has seen what ambition can do for a club, for a market, and for a league’s perception of itself. It has also seen how quickly expectations rise when you prove what is possible.

MLS is no longer a niche league trying to survive. It is a league trying to choose its next form. The strongest clubs are building real businesses. The weakest clubs are revealing where the gaps still exist.

And the league as a whole is moving into an era where the questions are not about legitimacy, but about scale.

Not make-or-break.

Just the difference between growing fast and growing slow.

For a league that has spent 30 years climbing, that is a very optimistic problem to have.