Remember when you could buy an NHL team for the price of a nice house in Beverly Hills? Yeah, me neither. But back in 1995, that’s pretty much what happened when Philip Anschutz scooped up the Los Angeles Kings for $113 million. Fast forward three decades and the same franchise is now valued at a jaw-dropping $3.15 billion. That’s not a typo. That kind of return would make even the savviest hedge fund manager blush.
Every year when these NHL valuation lists drop, I find myself doing the same thing: scrolling straight to the Kings line, half expecting them to have slipped a spot or two. And every year I’m reminded that Los Angeles isn’t just keeping pace in the hockey business world—it’s quietly dominating it.
How the Kings Built a $3 Billion Empire in the Desert
Let’s be honest: Los Angeles isn’t exactly known as a traditional hockey hotbed. The palm trees don’t exactly scream “frozen pond.” Yet here we are, with the Kings sitting comfortably in fourth place among the league’s most valuable franchises, trailing only the three untouchable Original Six brands that shall not be named (you know who they are).
Their 11% year-over-year growth might not sound earth-shattering when you see some expansion teams posting bigger jumps, but steady appreciation in a major market? That’s the kind of performance that keeps billionaires smiling at board meetings.
The Arena Advantage Nobody Talks About
Crypto.com Arena isn’t just a building. It’s a cash machine wearing a hockey jersey.
Think about this for a second: the Kings share their home with the Lakers, Clippers, and Sparks, plus roughly 200 concerts and events every year. That means premium seating is sold once but used 365 days a year. The suites aren’t sitting empty half the season like in some Canadian markets waiting for winter to arrive.
Last season the arena averaged 17,196 fans per game—about 95% capacity. Sure, that’s down 4.2% from the year before, but in a city where people have a thousand entertainment options on any given night, showing up for regular-season hockey at that rate is actually impressive.
In sports, real estate is everything. Owning your building in a top-five media market with year-round demand is the closest thing to printing money the legal way.
Revenue Streams That Actually Make Sense
The Kings pulled in $347 million in revenue last year. Break it down and you start seeing why this franchise has become the golden child of sports investors.
- National TV money keeps climbing thanks to the league’s new deals
- Local broadcast rights remain strong despite cord-cutting trends
- Sponsorship portfolio that reads like a Fortune 500 list
- Merchandise sales boosted by two Stanley Cups this century
- And yes, ticket prices that would make a Broadway producer jealous
Perhaps most impressively, the team generated $110 million in EBITDA. That’s not revenue—that’s actual operating profit before the accountants start doing their magic. In a league where many teams still lean on revenue sharing to stay afloat, the Kings are legitimately profitable on their own merits.
Debt? What Debt?
Here’s the part that makes finance people weak in the knees: the Kings carry debt equal to just 3% of enterprise value. Three percent. Most franchises are leveraged to the hilt, using debt to fund arena renovations or simply to complete purchases. Anschutz? He’s been paying cash like it’s 1995 all over again.
Low debt means flexibility. It means the ability to weather a lockout, a pandemic, or whatever chaos the league throws at ownership next. It’s the difference between sleeping well at night and refreshing your bank balance at 3 a.m.
| Metric | LA Kings | NHL Average (est.) |
| Enterprise Value | $3.15 billion | ~ $1.3 billion |
| Revenue | $347 million | ~ $210 million |
| EBITDA Margin | ~32% | ~15-20% |
| Debt/Value | 3% | ~25-40% |
The Anschutz Effect
Philip Anschutz doesn’t do many interviews. He doesn’t need to. The man who made billions in oil, railroads, and telecommunications looked at Los Angeles in the mid-90s and saw what everyone else missed: a massive market that was starving for winning hockey.
He didn’t just buy a team—he bought downtown Los Angeles. The arena deal that became Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) was revolutionary at the time. Private financing, luxury boxes out the wazoo, and a location that turned a forgotten part of downtown into the city’s entertainment epicenter.
Two Stanley Cups later (2012 and 2014, in case you’ve forgotten), the brand is cemented. The Kings aren’t the Lakers—nobody expects them to be—but they’ve carved out their own space in a crowded sports landscape.
What the Future Holds
The scary part for the rest of the league? The Kings might not be done growing.
With the salary cap exploding thanks to new media deals, player costs will rise—but so will revenue across the board. The teams best positioned to capitalize are the ones in big markets with strong local TV and sponsorship dollars. Sound familiar?
There’s also the not-so-small matter of the arena naming rights deal with Crypto.com—one of the biggest in sports history at $700 million over 20 years. That money flows straight to the bottom line.
And let’s not forget the intangibles: a passionate fan base that grew up with Gretzky and now packs the building for Kopitar and Byfield, a farm system that keeps producing, and a front office that understands the business side as well as anyone.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re going to own a sports team, own one in Los Angeles. The weather’s nice, the market’s massive, and apparently the returns are pretty decent too.
From $113 million to $3.15 billion in thirty years. Not bad for a hockey team in the desert.
At the end of the day, the Kings’ valuation isn’t just a number—it’s proof that when you combine smart ownership, perfect location, and a product people actually want to watch, magic happens. Even in a city where ice only exists in cocktails.
