State of the Sox: Calls to ‘Sell the team’ likely to go unanswered

They weren’t deafening, but they weren’t inaudible, either.

If you were at Fenway Park last Monday night, you heard the chants as the Red Sox headed for their third straight loss and eighth in their first 10 games.

Sell the team! Sell the team! could be heard in pockets throughout the ballpark, impossible to ignore. The intended target heard them for sure, as a viral video clip showed principal owner John Henry asking someone nearby what the fans were chanting, then mouthing the phrase himself.

It could be argued that the groundswell was merely in response to a campaign by Barstool Sports owner and general provocateur Dave Portnoy. But again: what was said, was said.

The outcry was the result of the horrific start by the team, intensifying the frustration of the fan base. Following a return to the playoffs last fall, expectations were heightened. But the poor play on the field to begin the year, coupled with the team’s inability to land a run-producing bat over the offseason had fans lathered up.

Angry ballpark reaction aside, what are the chances that Fenway Sports Group acquiesces to those demands? Slim to none, according to all available evidence. The Red Sox aren’t the least bit incentivized to sell.

When Henry was asked some three years ago about the potential for the team being sold, he responded, not a little indignantly, with a question of his own: “When was the last time (FSG) sold anything?” he answered.

Since then, FSG has, in fact, liquidated from its portfolio, selling both the Red Sox Single A affiliate in Salem, Va., as well as the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins were flipped some four years after FSG bought them; the club nearly doubled in value from purchase to sale.

Meanwhile, a source confirmed last week that, contrary to years-long speculation, FSG is no longer interested in bidding for an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas.

But FSG’s crown jewels — the Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. –remain as its tentpoles, with no evidence whatsoever that either will be up for sale anytime soon.

It’s impossible to say with any certainty how profitable the Red Sox are to FSG, as privately-held teams are not required to share their profit and loss statements. However, the Atlanta Braves, who are publicly traded, disclosed that they took in some $732 million in baseball-related revenue and another almost $100 million from their mixed-use facility, The Battery, which surrounds Truist Park. The Braves’ operating income, or profit, was reported as $107.8 million.

The Red Sox don’t have the kind of real estate development around Fenway to match the Braves — though that may only be a few years away, as there are plans in place to build a similar area — but Atlanta’s baseball revenue income is staggering. And that came in a year in which the Braves saw their local TV sharply reduced because of financial losses by the team’s rights holders. The Red Sox, meanwhile, own 80 percent of NESN, their regional sports network, which remains profitable.

By some informed estimates by Forbes magazine, the Red Sox had an operating income in 2025 of approximately $78 million.

Beyond the annual profit, there’s the huge jump in the team’s valuation. The Red Sox were sold to Henry and Co. for $700 million in 2002, and a quarter century later, are estimated be worth in excess of $5 billion — an increase of more than seven times the original investment.

And despite the gathering storm clouds on the horizon with the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and the near-certainty of a lockout in December, the Red Sox value may be poised to take another leap forward.

Central to the demands by the owners in the upcoming labor talks is the implementation of a salary cap. It’s far from a guarantee that a cap will be part of any new CBA — the MLB Players Association has long steadfastly opposed a cap — but should that happen, many economists project that the value of each club would take a significant leap due to the certainty of labor costs for at least the life (usually five years) of the new agreement.

There’s also this: despite his reticence to engage with the media and his generally low public profile, Henry still remains engaged when it comes to the Red Sox. Since he seldom ventures onto the field, it’s impossible to know how many home games he attends, but one person close to him reports that he’s frequently at Fenway. He also communicates with team president Sam Kennedy on a daily basis, and occasionally, with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.

He is not, as some have charged, an absentee owner, but rather, a willfully invisible one — at least insofar as the public and media are concerned. He’s also a businessman first and foremost, with an investment that continues to prosper financially, and no good reason to divest himself.

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