For more than a century, National Football League owners have been an exclusive club. With rules that place tough restrictions on who is allowed to buy teams — and how those purchases can be financed — only the extremely wealthy can afford to join. Now they’re on the cusp of admitting a new kind of member.
At a meeting next week in Eagan, Minn., N.F.L. owners are expected to approve rules that would allow certain private equity firms to buy as much as 10 percent of a team.
The move would help owners solve a liquidity problem. As team valuations have soared — the Washington Commanders sold for $6.05 billion last year — the number of potential buyers has fallen. Finding limited partners has also become more difficult because they have no voting rights yet must tie up tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. Allowing investments from private equity could make it easier to put together a deal.
The N.F.L. would be the last major sports league to allow private equity firms to become minority owners, and its approach is more conservative than leagues like the National Basketball Association, which allows private equity firms to own up to 30 percent of a team. If the new rules pass, only a handful of anointed private equity firms will be able to invest in teams.
Who’s in? The N.F.L. has whittled the potential list of permitted private equity investors to just a handful of firms. They include firms that focus on sports, like Arctos Partners and Dynasty Equity, as well as larger firms like Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners and Carlyle Group, which expanded its sports with its recent purchase of the women’s soccer team Seattle Reign F.C. The firms were reported earlier by Sportico.
Who’s out? Almost as interesting to Wall Street insiders are which firms are not on the list, including RedBird Capital Partners, which has a licensing deal for the N.F.L.’s Sunday Ticket games. The firm was in talks to be among those investing in the league but became conflicted because of its involvement in the proposed acquisition of Paramount, which carries N.F.L. games on CBS and its streaming service, Paramount+, a person familiar with the negotiations said. The person requested anonymity because the negotiations are confidential.
What now? If owners approve the proposed changes on Tuesday, those who want to sell stakes could then apply to the league’s finance committee. After the committee vets the applications, approval of each application would be put to a vote by all owners, potentially as soon as the next meeting of owners in October.
Which team will make the first deal? Bankers say owners whose wealth is tied up in the league may be most eager. Other favorite guesses include the Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, who reportedly wants to sell a stake in his club to help pay for the new stadium he is building in Orchard Park, and the Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos, who may sell part of the team to buy out his sister Dea Spanos Berberian.