(New York) NFL franchise owners on Tuesday approved the possibility for investment funds to acquire stakes in teams in the professional American football league.
According to documents sent to AFP by the NFL, none of these funds will be able to hold more than 10% of the capital of a team, the holding period being a minimum of six years.
And an NFL club will not be able to sell more than 10% of its shares in total to institutional investors.
The league with the largest revenues in the world (nearly $13 billion in 2023) has finalized a shortlist of four groups likely to acquire shares in a franchise.
It includes a consortium including private equity giants Blackstone, Carlyle, and CVC.
These funds will have the possibility of investing in several teams, the limit being set at six.
The three other major American sports leagues, the NBA (basketball), the NHL (hockey) and the MLB (baseball) already allow minority stakes in their franchises.
For these three leagues, they are limited to 30%, which can be distributed among several private equity firms.
The NFL had, until now, refused to open the capital of its franchises to institutional investors, preferring to keep the historical model of shareholding reserved for individuals.
But valuations of American football league teams have reached levels where the population of potential buyers has shrunk significantly.
In July 2023, the Washington Commanders were sold for $6.05 billion, by far the world record for a sports club.
Before 2023, no franchise or club had ever been sold for more than three billion.
Interested in diversifying their investments, but also in the rapid acceleration of the sports industry, more and more players in the world of finance are positioning themselves on this market.
In Europe, many funds have taken stakes in football teams, including Silver Lake, which owns the capital of the English champion Manchester City, and RedBird Capital, which has become the owner of the Italian club AC Milan.