(NewsNation) — NFL owners are scheduled to meet on Aug. 27 in Minneapolis, and one proposal they will consider is whether to allow private equity firms to buy stakes in teams.
Allowing the investments — which other sports leagues do — is a way to further inflate franchise values, which have already ballooned into the billions. The move could spell higher concession and ticket prices for fans.
The NFL has long been opposed to private equity getting in the game, preferring family-owned or ultra-wealthy owners, so this would be a major shift to the NFL’s ownership rules. But that could change if 24 of the 32 owners give it the thumbs up this week.
Other major sports leagues like the NBA, MLB, NHL and WNBA all allow some form of private equity investment in teams, with different rules league-to-league.
Getting into the NFL ownership fraternity has always been super exclusive. The two recent franchise sales — the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders — went for north of 4 and 6 billion, respectively.
In 2023, the average team was worth a record $5.1 billion, up by 14% from the year prior, per Forbes, so expanding the investor pool is a priority for the NFL.
The league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, spoke to CNBC in July about loosening ownership rules to allow private equity firms to buy in.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest, and we believe that this could make sense for us, in a limited fashion,” Goodell said. “Probably no more than 10% of a team, but that would be something that we think could complement our ownership and support our ownership policies.”
