Soccer Franchises in Texas Are Worth Millions. Here’s Why.

Soccer doesn’t have a sustained audience in America – yet. But two of the most valuable teams in the country are in Texas.

By Rhonda FanningSeptember 8, 2015 12:12 pm, ,

There’s a world-class sports event in Arlington on Tuesday night, but neither of the teams competing are from Texas.

In fact, neither teams are from the U.S. That’s right, we’re talking about soccer. Mexico will be facing off against Argentina tonight at the AT&T Center.

Soccer is a sport that, so far, has not exactly kindled the passions of hundreds of millions of Americans the way professional football has. And despite the fact that pro soccer still struggles to fill the stands, the Texas-based major league soccer franchises are apparently worth a fortune.

A Forbes list of Most Valuable Teams in Major League Soccer valued the Houston Dynamo as the third highest in the U.S. at $200 million, with rival FC Dallas trailing at $148 million.

But Dan Solomon, writer for the Texas Monthly‘s Daily Post is a little skeptical about this.

“I think these numbers are pretty high, but in a free-market economy, things are always worth whatever someone will pay for them,” he says.

Those who can afford a stake in a major league sports team are typically millionaires or billionaires, and Solomon says that their heavy-duty investments are where the high-dollar value comes from.

Unless an owner decides to compete for popular players in their prime, Solomon says growing interest in the sport throughout America will remain a challenge.

“It’s rising at a very slow and steady pace, not the meteoric bell curve that people have been hoping for or talking about for 40 years,” he says.