In professional sports, the team mascot is a part of the franchise’s brand and overall entertainment product, but with the recent rise in mascot-related lawsuits, and decisions against the teams, it is becoming advisable for teams to discontinue their use of mascots.  The cost for the teams of a potential mascot-litigation, settlement or judgment outweighs any minor entertainment benefit to the fans.  When analyzing the total franchise valuations of the teams in the four major U.S. professional sport leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL), it appears that teams with mascots generally have lower values demonstrating that there is not a strong financial incentive to retain a mascot.  When you couple this with the potential for liability that comes with voluntarily employing a mascot, it seems that the better course of action for the teams is to proceed without mascots.