With valuations of NFL groups hovering, Clark Hunt, the proprietor of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, sees non-public fairness buyers as a possible supply of capital for franchises.
“I don’t wish to predict a method or one other whether or not we are going to in the end undertake it,” Hunt mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg Information previous to the Tremendous Bowl in Las Vegas. “However I do suppose it’s avenue that may be useful from a capital standpoint.”
The NFL final 12 months arrange a committee to evaluate whether or not to permit institutional capital to take a position instantly into franchises, and is predicted to place ahead suggestions earlier than the league’s annual assembly in March. Hunt is chairman of the NFL’s finance committee, and a member of the possession group.
“It’s a topic that we’ve been discussing for a pair years,” Hunt mentioned. “Personal fairness possession is allowed within the different 4 huge US sports activities so we’ve had an opportunity to look at that unfold and it’s a subject we’re going to proceed to debate.”
Personal fairness corporations have been making a much bigger push into sports activities, led by corporations together with Arctos Sports activities Companions, Ares Administration, and Dyal Capital.
The Nationwide Basketball Affiliation has been steadily opening as much as institutional buyers, and in late 2022 allowed sovereign wealth funds, pensions and endowments purchase passive stakes in its groups.
The NFL stays off limits to personal fairness buyers, as an alternative counting on ultra-high-net-worth people to supply billions to purchase franchises.