Giants World Series Win Worth Millions

Worth every penny

​Even carrying Barry Zito's enormous (and useless) contract, the San Francisco Giants still had a massive upswing in valuation this year.

Yes, we can't get enough of the Giants -- including every Brian Wilson performance on and off the field. And while we are still basking in the World Series win, here's something else to consider: The historic triumph increased the team's value by 16 percent over last year.

In short, the Giants are now worth $563 million.

And here is why.

The team brought in a record $230 million in revenue during its World Series run, which emanated largely from the roughly 3 million fans who packed AT&T Park to watch the team make history, according to Forbes.com.

Within 36 hours after winning the pennant, fans flocked to buy the latest iteration of "Fear the Beard" merchandise, which tallied up to $600,000 in sales -- and those are just licensed sales.

So the team -- now valued by Forbes as baseball's seventh-most valuable -- is well equipped in both skills and money as it heads into this new season, with opening day set for March 31 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yet Forbes noted "one area of concern" for the Giants beginning in 2011 -- its revenue-sharing.

Since the team decided to amortize its stadium expenses over 10 years in calculating its local revenue for the league-sharing pool, the Giants' contribution to lower-revenue teams is going to increase significantly this year.

Oh well. Still, no one's amortizing the World Series trophy.

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