Inter Miami just became the most valuable franchise in Major League Soccer, and the numbers behind it capture exactly how fast MLS is changing.
Sportico’s latest valuation report, shared by MLS Communications, shows five MLS clubs now worth more than $1 billion, with Miami leading the league at $1.45 billion. It’s a milestone that reflects more than a hot market or one strong season; it’s the clearest snapshot yet of MLS’ new reality: superstar-driven attention, bigger crowds, bigger sponsorships, and a widening gap between the clubs turning games into global events and the ones still fighting for traction. With Miami and LAFC now sitting at the top of the financial table – and the league’s overall valuations continuing to rise – the question isn’t whether MLS is growing. It’s how high the ceiling really is, and who’s actually built to reach it.
Table of Contents
A New No. 1 and a reshuffled top tier
Inter Miami didn’t just climb the Sportico table – they kicked the door in. Miami’s valuation jumped 22% year-over-year, the biggest rise in the league, lifting them to $1.45 billion and nudging them ahead of LAFC at $1.4 billion (+9%). That jump is a significant shift in the league’s center of gravity, because it’s the first time in Sportico’s five years doing MLS valuations that LAFC aren’t sitting at No. 1. And when you zoom out, the new top tier looks like a proper billionaire’s row: Miami and LAFC leading, followed by the LA Galaxy ($1.17B), Atlanta United ($1.14B), and New York City FC ($1.12B) – a group that now feels less like a novelty and more like the start of MLS’ financial “big six.”
Today @Sportico unveiled their @MLS team valuations: Five MLS clubs are now valued at $1B+, led by Inter Miami CF at $1.45B.
— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) February 10, 2026
Across all 30 clubs, MLS franchise values total $23B, with the average club valued at $767M.
https://t.co/gW1wJImQWW
The Messi Effect, translated into dollars
Miami’s rise to the top is the business version of what you see on the road – packed stadiums, celebrity vibes, and an “event” atmosphere that follows them everywhere. The surge can be directly linked to Lionel Messi’s inclusion to the MLS in 2023, and it’s not hard to understand why. This isn’t just social numbers or headlines; it’s how the entire matchday economy changes when the sport’s biggest name is in your shirt. Ticket demand stops behaving like normal supply-and-demand and starts behaving like a concert tour – bigger crowds, higher price points, more premium inventory that actually sells.
Sponsors don’t just buy local reach anymore; they’re buying global visibility, which tends to come with bigger checks and longer commitments. And the knock-on effects spread: merchandise spikes, hospitality becomes easier to upsell, and the club’s brand stops being “a team in a league” and becomes a travelling product. Miami may be the clearest example, but they’re not the only one chasing that blueprint – their own international pull is boosting LAFC’s growth through Heung-Min Son, a reminder that MLS’ top valuation tier is increasingly built around global magnets.
MLS is booming – but the gap is widening
The league-wide numbers still scream growth, and the headline is hard to ignore: the average MLS club is valued at $767 million, up 6% year-over-year and up 39% since Sportico started publishing MLS valuations in 2021. That’s a massive shift in a short time, and it confirms that MLS is no longer a “cheap entry” sports asset – it’s a serious, maturing market. The important subplot that keeps this from being a simple “everyone wins” story: the bottom 12 clubs rose only 2% on average, and three teams actually declined in value (San Jose, Vancouver, Montréal). That contrast is the clearest signal yet that MLS is starting to stratify financially. The teams that can manufacture global relevance – whether through stars, stadium demand, or brand pull – are accelerating faster, while the rest are growing more slowly, grinding for separation and trying to convert local support into the same kind of scalable business.
The Investment in San Diego FC
The San Diego number is the kind that makes you stop and reread it: San Diego FC is valued at $765 million, ranking 10th on the list. That’s not a valuation built on decades of trophies, heritage, or generational fandom – it’s a valuation built on expectation. It’s investors paying for what they think MLS is becoming, not only what it currently is. The logic is familiar across modern sports: bet on population growth, sponsorship runway, and a stadium-and-event model that can be monetized hard, then layer in the broader timing – a league in a country heading toward an even bigger soccer moment on the continent. In that sense, the San Diego valuation reads like a forward-looking price tag: you’re buying the future of the market, and you’re paying a premium because the league’s ceiling looks higher than it did even a few years ago.
The Perfect Week 1 Stage
MLS isn’t wasting any time turning the business storyline into a live, prime-time show. The season opens February 21 with Miami visiting LAFC, and the match has been shifted to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to meet demand – a decision that turns a normal opener into a league-wide spectacle. It’s hard to script it better: the two most valuable teams, two of the league’s biggest international magnets in Messi vs Son, under the lights in a venue designed for scale. It’s MLS putting its new identity front and center and telling the audience, in one night, what the league wants the season to feel like: big, loud, global, and impossible to ignore.
