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A16 SPORTS
Thursday 29 augusT 2024
NFL owners newly endorse private equity stakes of up to 10% in
teams by league-approved firms
By DAVE CAMPBELL to institutional investment
AP Pro Football Writer after previously prohibiting
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The it. Other major American
booming business of the sports leagues allow as
NFL will now be open for much as 30% holdings by
more business. private equity firms, and it’s
League owners voted their also a common practice in
carefully crafted approval international soccer.
of private equity in club “It’s an access to capital
ownership, putting in place that has been interest to
a provisional new rule on us for a long time,” Com-
Tuesday that lets certain missioner Roger Goodell
firms buy up a stake of up said after the session at the
to 10% in any of the 32 fran- Omni Viking Lakes Hotel,
chises that have soared in which sits across from the
value over the past few headquarters of the Min-
decades like few other in- nesota Vikings. “I think it’s
dustries. an appropriate thing to
At a special meeting in give teams that liquidity to
Minnesota, nine days be- reinvest in the game and
fore the regular-season to their teams.”
opener, owners for the first Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt speaks on behalf of the NFL’s special committee on ownership The NFL with this vote per-
policy in Eagan, Minn., Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024.
time opened their teams Associated Press mitted only four different
groups to enter the arena:
standalone firms Arctos
Partners, Ares Manage-
ment Corporation and
Sixth Street, plus a consor-
tium of five funds Black-
stone, Carlyle, CVC, Dy-
nasty Equity and Ludis. The
approved list could well be
extended in the future, but
these selections from the
initial vetting process were
made based on having
the cash ready to go right
away.
Ludis was founded by Pro
Football Hall of Fame run-
ning back Curtis Martin,
who spearheaded the col-
laboration as part of his
effort to include minority
race investors in NFL own-
ership positions.
“This is something that
we’ve long fought for and
tried to find ways to en-
courage that,” Goodell
said.
In addition to the 10% pri-
vate equity cap, there
were other guardrails es-
tablished.
Multiple funds can ac-
count for the 10%, but
there’s a 3% minimum in-
vestment for each. Each
purchase must be held
for a minimum of six years.
There’s a maximum of six
teams that each of the ap-
proved funds can invest in,
and no more than 20% of
each fund can go to one
NFL club. No individual in-
vestor can own more than
7.5% of a fund.q
