GOLDEN GOALS

Months after winning the 2022 Major League Soccer Cup, the Los Angeles Football Club is MLS' first billion-dollar franchise. And with more than a dozen billionaire owners in the league, it won't be the last.

- JUSTIN BIRNBAUM

At the Los Angeles Football Club's University Hills training facility, some 10 weeks after winning its first Major League Soccer title in a thrilling penalty shootout, co-owner Bennett Rosenthal is still processing his team's spectacular season. "It's a life experience that you don't expect," the 59-year-old says. "I think we're all still smiling every day."

Now Rosenthal has something else to celebrate-Forbes estimates that LAFC is worth $1 billion, just nine years after it joined MLS for an expansion fee of $110 million, making it the league's first billion-dollar franchise. That's more than double the $475 million Forbes determined it was worth in 2019, the last time we assessed North American soccer teams.

That's an impressive return, but not one Rosenthal was banking on. "We did not do this because we thought it was the best place to put our capital," says the cofounder of the $341 billion (AUM) Ares Management, who made his fortune finding profitable alternative investments. "We thought it could be fun and we're making a great macro bet on the growth of the sport."

LAFC's ascent is the latest sign of just how much MLS has grown since it was founded in 1996. There are now 29 teams in the league-it began with 10-with St. Louis City SC set to debut this season. Since 2019, the average team valuation has climbed 85%, from $313 million to $579 million. And the price tag for the next expansion team (likely Las Vegas or San Diego) is expected to be $500 million, according to a well-placed industry source, a considerable increase from the previous record of $325 million set by billionaire David Tepper when he founded Charlotte FC in 2019.