(Bloomberg) -- The National Football League has been the last major sporting holdout to institutional capital, relying on billionaires to invest in teams rather than Wall Street.
NFL owners have now agreed to sell stakes in their franchises to private equity. The rules are:
- Private equity firms can buy stakes of as much a 10%.
- The pre-approved firms are Arctos Partners, Ares Management and Sixth Street Partners and a consortium comprised of Dynasty Equity, Blackstone, Carlyle and CVC Capital Partners.
- Investors can buy stakes in as many as six teams at once.
- Funds will have to hold any investment for six years, and a minimum of a 3% stake in one team.
So which teams might the new bidders potentially buy into?
Philadelphia Eagles
Jeffrey Lurie is exploring a sale of a minority stake in the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Lurie is working with BDT & MSD Partners. A 10% stake could cost about $750 million.
Miami Dolphins
Last year, billionaire Ken Griffin entered into talks with Stephen Ross to buy a minority stake in the Miami Dolphins, along with the Hard Rock Stadium and the F1 Miami Grand Prix. It didn’t work out and the talks fell apart, but Ross is still up for selling a stake.
Buffalo Bills
Owners Terry and Kim Pegula have hired Allen & Co. to help sell a minority stake in the Bills. They bought them back in 2014 for a then record $1.4 billion. Sportico values the team at about $5 billion.
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Chargers owner Dea Spanos Berberian is in talks to sell about a quarter stake in the NFL franchise. Clearlake Capital co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano were said last year to be weighing a bid for a stake in the team.
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are trying to build a $2.4 billion domed NFL stadium. It’s not clear if Jimmy and Dee Haslam have the money, especially after the purchase of a minority stake in the Milwaukee Bucks from billionaire Marc Lasry.
Chicago Bears
The 101-year-old Virginia McCaskey currently owns the Bears. Before his death in 1983, her dad, George Halas, came up with a plan to pass the team to McCaskey, his only living child, without saddling her with a heavy tax burden.
Halas divided the 49.35% of the Bears he owned into equal shares for his 13 grandchildren using a set of trusts. Voting power over those shares went to McCaskey, who already owned close to 20% of the team. McCaskey has since raised 11 children, with 21 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Selling a stake would help ease the tax burden on McCaskey’s heirs.
Seattle Seahawks
After the death of longtime owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2018, control passed to Jody Allen, Paul’s sister and the executor of his estate. The family trust also owns the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Paul’s wishes stipulated that both teams should be sold at some point.
Jody, 65, is reluctant to sell the teams and has enjoyed being an NFL owner, hampering any potential sale despite a number of possible bidders, according to two people who have spoken with the Allen estate. A spokesperson for the estate said there is no current sales process or timeline set but Paul’s wish for the team to be sold will be honored. Perhaps a stake sale is more likely in the short term.
Cincinnati Bengals?
Definitely not Cincinnati Bengals. The vote went 31-1 in favor of allowing private equity, with one holdout being Mike Brown, son of Bengals co-founder Paul Brown, according to two people familiar with the matter.
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