Rays Named "Smartest Spenders" in Sports

This should come as no surprise to Rays fans, but the franchise was named the Businessweek "smartest spender in sports" across MLB, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL.

Bloomberg's press release follows:

Bloomberg Businessweek’s second annual ranking of the smartest spenders in sports is online now at businessweek.com and in the magazine on newsstands Friday, August 31, 2012. The ranking determines how well the 122 franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB spend their money. Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Ira Boudway compiled the list using regular and post-season records, and publicly available payroll data, to calculate how much teams spent per win over the last five seasons. (For baseball, he also included the first half of the current season.) Every team was then compared against league average to see how well they turn wages into wins, producing a total score called the “efficiency index.” The lower the index the
better.

MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays came in at #1 with an efficiency index of -1.82, followed by #2 MLB’s Texas Rangers; #3 NHL’s Detroit Red Wings; #4 NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers; #5 NBA’s Boston Celtics; #6 NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins; #7 NFL’s New England Patriots; #8 NFL’s Green Bay Packers; #9 NFL’s New York Giants; and #10 NHL’s Boston Bruins. Dead last on the ranking is NFL’s St. Louis Rams, coming in at #122 with an efficiency index of 4.07. Joining the Rams in the bottom 10 least efficient spenders are #121 NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves; #120 MLB’s New York Mets; #119 New York Islanders; #118 NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs; #117 MLB’s Chicago Cubs; #116 NBA’s New York Knicks; #115 NBA’s Brooklyn Nets; #114 NHL’s Winnipeg Jets; and #113 MLB’s Seattle Mariners.

For this year’s ranking, bonuses were added for the victories that matter most: wins above .500, playoff wins, and championships. The scale counts regular season wins once, with a half-win bonus for every win over .500. Playoff wins count for 10 percent of a season; championships for half a season. In their Super Bowl winning season in 2011, for instance, the New York Giants got credit for 9 regular season wins, plus a .5 game bonus for their ninth win—the one that put them above .500. Their 4 playoff wins earned them 6.4 more wins. And the Super Bowl victory 8 more, for total of 23.9 “weighted” wins. At businessweek.com, the rankings are interactive as readers can adjust the weights with their own values, and see how the rankings change. They can also sort the rankings by league.

NOTABLE FINDINGS:
Baseball: Top MLB team is the Tampa Bay Rays (#1); Least efficient is the New York Mets (#120)
Basketball: Top NBA team is the LA Lakers (#4); Least efficient is the Minnesota Timberwolves (#121)
Football: Top NFL team is the New England Patriots (#7); Least efficient is the St. Louis Rams (#122)
Hockey: Top NHL team is the Detroit Red Wings (#3); Least efficient is the New York Islanders(#119)

Boston: The Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins make the top 10, but the Red Sox come in at #70

New York Area: The #9 New York Giants and #14 New Jersey Devils are in the top 15, while the New York Rangers are at #45, New York Jets are at #54, and the New York Yankees are at #98, with the #115 Brooklyn Nets, #116 New York Knicks, #119 New York Islanders, and #120 New York Mets all in the bottom 10

Los Angeles: The City of Angels also has a wide spread, with the Lakers at #4, the Kings at #37, the Anaheim Ducks at #65, the Dodgers at #79, the Clippers at #86, and the Angels at #90

For Tampa Bay fans keeping score at home, the Buccaneers came in just above average at No. 59, while the Lightning were just below average at No. 76.