Private equity and the evolution of sports assets

December 2024

While investing in sports is not new to private equity, recent developments have brought increased attention to the investment opportunity.

In August 2024, the National Football League (“NFL”) voted to permit private equity investment into its franchises for the first time. Over the past five years, all five major North American sports leagues – Major League Baseball (“MLB”), the National Basketball Association (“NBA”), the National Hockey League (“NHL”), Major League Soccer (“MLS”), and the NFL – have removed longstanding policies that prohibited private capital investment.

The objective of this paper is to assess the opportunity of investing in the sports industry, explore private equity’s growing presence in the sports sector, and highlight the role private equity plays in the sports ecosystem.