The $4tn private equity industry has struck its first two deals to buy stakes in National Football League teams as Wall Street’s most powerful funds eye long-term investments in the world’s most profitable sports league.
Ares Management on Wednesday acquired a 10 per cent stake in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins franchise. Arctos, a sports-focused private equity investor, led a group that purchased a minority equity stake in the Buffalo Bills, based in upstate New York and owned by oil billionaire Terry Pegula, father of US tennis star Jessica Pegula.
The NFL approved the two deals at its owners’ meeting in Dallas, ushering in a new era when Wall Street investment funds will be allowed to own direct stakes in popular and valuable US football teams.
The deals are the first in what investors expect will be a torrent of similar minority investments in the coming years, after NFL owners approved major changes to ownership rules in August and permitted private equity groups to invest in teams.
Ares, which manages nearly $500bn in assets, is buying its minority stake from Dolphins owner and billionaire real estate mogul Stephen Ross at a valuation of $8.1bn, said people briefed on the deal.
In addition to a stake in the football team, Ares and other investors in the group — including Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai — will own minority stakes in the Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and the Formula One Miami Grand Prix.
Finance firms have long hoped to invest in the NFL. “It’s the most valuable global sports property from an economic standpoint,” said one prominent dealmaker, who also noted investors have been drawn to the consistency of team profits and the belief new revenue streams will generate rising cash flows to ownership groups.
NFL teams also carry unleveraged balance sheets, making the investments recession-resistant. “The cap tables are not what we are used to seeing in a traditional leveraged buyout,” said another dealmaker. Team values are priced at multiples of about nine to 12 times revenues, said people familiar with the matter, who noted those can go higher or lower depending on whether a team owns their stadium.
Buying an NFL franchise outright is beyond even some of the world’s richest people, as valuations have soared. That has strengthened the case for allowing buyout firms to enter the ownership ecosystem to smooth the sales process for existing owners and facilitate liquidity.
The average NFL team was worth roughly $5.9bn in Sportico’s valuations report in August, an increase of more than 15 per cent on last year, bolstered by the league’s domestic media rights, which are worth $110bn over the 11 years through 2033.
Arctos and Ares have a long record of investing in sports teams around the globe.
Dallas-based Arctos has minority stakes in several baseball teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, and basketball franchises such as the Utah Jazz. Last year the firm acquired stakes in the Qatari-owned football team Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Martin F1. The firm’s co-founder Ian Charles told the Financial Times earlier this year it planned to focus future investment in North America after it raised a new $4.1bn fund in April.
Ares, which specialises in credit, has completed deals with several football teams including Chelsea, Olympique Lyonnais and Inter Miami. In 2022, it raised $3.7bn for a fund dedicated to sport and media investments. It has also backed the McLaren Racing F1 team.
Ares and Arctos were among a small group of private equity firms the NFL approved as potential buyers. The others were Sixth Street and a consortium made up of Blackstone, Carlyle, CVC, Dynasty Equity and Ludis.
The NFL stipulated that firms are only permitted to buy up to 10 per cent of any individual team, and blocked so-called preferred equity deals that give certain shareholders superior rights such as first dibs on dividends.
