As private equity has made inroads into every aspect of the American economy, one highly popular and profitable sector has resisted it: Professional football. But that could change on Tuesday, when NFL owners plan to vote on whether to change the league’s ownership rules to allow private equity investments into teams.
All 32 NFL owners are gathered in Minneapolis to vote on the matter. The rule changes will pass if 24 teams vote to ratify the measure.
Allowing a private equity investment into teams would represent the first time the NFL allowed institutional capital into its franchises. Until now, teams were owned by wealthy individuals, or at most a consortium of investors, who put up their own personal money. The league has long been defined by legendary, larger-than-life teams owners. Among the most famous are the likes of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots.
The possible rule changes have been in the works for over a year. In September 2023 the NFL put together a committee to explore revamping its ownership policies. The decision to form the committee came after two mammoth sales: the Denver Broncos to Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.65 billion and the Washington Commanders to Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris for $6.05. (Harris invested his own money, not Apollo’s).
The NFL had previously considered a vote on the matter in May, but ultimately opted to postpone it. After that May meeting NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sounded optimistic the changes would be adopted, telling the press that team owners “agree with the direction we’re going, some of the aspects that we presented to them in that update.”
The NFL is the only one of the major four U.S. Sports leagues that does not allow any institutional investment. The NBA, NHL, and MLB all allow teams to sell up to 30% to such investors. In overseas sports, in particular European soccer, institutional investment is much more common.
Even the NFL’s new ownership rules, should they pass on Tuesday, would be more restrictive than other leagues. The NFL would likely only allow 10% of a team to be sold to a select group of investors approved by the league, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As of June the NFL had identified seven private equity firms that it believed would be suitable for investment, according to Sportico. Six of the seven firms—Ares Capital, Carlyle Group CVC Partners, Sixth Street Arctos Partners and Dynasty Equity—all have varying degrees of expertise in sports investments. Blackstone is the only one of the NFL’s pre-selected firms that does not have previous sports investments, but it does have roughly $1 trillion in assets under management. Each firm would be able to invest in up to six different teams. The NFL won’t allow sovereign wealth funds to invest in teams, as is the case in other sports leagues.
Sixth Street, Arctos, and Dynasty Equity in particular have made names for themselves as specialists in the sports business. Sixth Street invested in Spanish soccer team Real Madrid’s new stadium, Arctos owns a minority stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and Dynasty Equity bought a stake in English soccer team Liverpool Football Club, which is owned by Fenway Sports Group, John Henry’s company that also owns the Boston Red Sox.
NFL franchises are among the most highly valued assets in sports, making them both highly coveted and prohibitively expensive. Easing the ownership rules would allow a greater number of investors to be involved in owning a team, while providing existing owners a liquidity should they want or need it. The NFL’s soaring valuation comes from the league’s massive media rights deals, estimated to be worth around $110 billion dollars over 10 years. As the most popular sport in America, football and NFL also occupy an extraordinary role in the nation’s culture. That too has translated to success in the marketplace, where in 2023 93 of the top 100 U.S. Television broadcasts were NFL games.
The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable sports team in the world, valued around $10 billion in 2024, according to Sportico. The second most valuable sports franchise is the baseball powerhouse New York Yankees, worth around $7.1 billion, according to Forbes. The NBA’s most valuable franchise, the Golden State Warriors, was valued around the same amount. While in European soccer Real Madrid, the legendary Spanish team, is the continent’s most valuable, pegged at $6.1 billion.