Maury Brown looks at the ways baseball teams receive value from MLBAM and MLB Network.

Both of these assets are used for matters such as league-based credit. For example, Fitch Ratings, which sets the bar for the creditworthiness of businesses around the world, recently affirmed an 'A' rating for MLB based in part on the league's economic structure.

It is not widely reported, but the majority of the clubs in MLB borrow money against a league fund - its credit facility called the Major League Baseball Trust. Last month, the league was able to refinance most, but not all of the credit facility, which translated into $30 million in principle payments to lenders as the portion that was not refinanced turned to debt. That turned into a bill that averaged $1.5 million for 20 of the clubs this off-season, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. While one might say that the league's economics don't appear to be some advantage when clubs are paying $1.5 million in debt before the season starts, consider that the NFL -the most popular league in the U.S. - was unable to refinance even a portion of their credit facility this past year.

The other way to view MLBAM and MLBN is what they are worth in net value, which in turn trickles down to increase franchise value. If projections remain true, MLBN would have a net value of over $1 billion by 2015. As for MLBAM, in 2005, MLB engaged in the possibility of an initial public offer for the digital rights asset. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, First Boston and J.P. Morgan tried in vain to get the owners to go forward with the initial public offering (IPO). After all, they had good reason to want to see it happen, as these analysts predicted the value of the IPO at the time to be $2-2.5 billion, or approx $2.7 billion in 2008 based on inflation.

So, let's say that MLB befalls some incredible headwinds. Let's say that in 2-3 years the country is still in the throws of a recession. The league could then offer up MLBAM and/or MLBN as an IPO and reap the benefits - the two act as a security blanket for MLB.

Just like regional sports networks (RSN) add value to teams, these league wide entities do the same for the league. As they increase the equity of the teams, owners will have more room to borrow and build up their franchises.