PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks may be world champions, but they're next to last when it comes to financial performance in the major leagues.

The 4-year-old team is expected to end the year with a loss of $44.4 million, despite a World Series run that brought in an extra $13 million, according to figures released Thursday by Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers' rank last with a $69 million loss.

The figures provide further evidence of the Diamondbacks' financial struggles, which have managing general partner Jerry Colangelo raising $160 million in new equity for the team.

The Diamondbacks' loss includes interest on its debt and league revenue sharing. Excluding those expenses, the team lost $32.2 million on its baseball operations -- a figure that includes more than $40 million in deferred player salaries that will not come out of the 2001 coffers, The Arizona Republic reported Friday.

Only three teams fared worse in this category: Montreal, Los Angeles and Toronto.

At the beginning of the season, the Diamondbacks were projecting a loss of $24 million, compared with about $30 million a year earlier, the Republic reported.

Early in the season it became clear the team's estimate was optimistic. Ticket sales continued to fall and weren't enough to support a higher payroll and other expenses.

The Diamondbacks had the eighth-highest operating expenses among the 30 major league teams this year but ranked only 14th in operating revenue, which includes ticket sales, souvenirs and the team's share of national sponsorship money and licensing revenue.

The team receives less national revenue than everyone but Tampa Bay because it doesn't share in national television revenue for its first five years.