NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he expects a final policy before the end of the yeargetty images
NASHVILLE — NFL owners on Wednesday blessed a framework for allowing private equity to buy non-controlling stakes in NFL clubs, with Commissioner Roger Goodell saying he expects a final policy “before the end of the year.”
There was no formal vote, but the committee looking into the subject presented an outline of a policy that league executives will now take to private equity funds to “see if that’s something that might be of interest,” said Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, chairman of the special five-person committee on ownership policy. The rest of the room supported that step.
“We didn’t ask for a vote, but I think it’s fair to say that they agree with the direction we’re going,” Goodell said.
Critical details of the policy are still yet to be determined, including:
- How many firms might be pre-approved for acquiring equity stakes in teams.
- Whether funds can hold stakes in multiple teams
- How many different funds could invest in a single team;
- What the total percentage of a team that could be held by funds will be.
Related to the first point, Hunt said, “Ultimately there’s very broad interest and we actually expect that interest to grow as the league continues those discussions. There’s very much a desire to right-size it in terms of what we believe might be the easiest membership groups to sell stakes with the capital that’s available. Those are both ongoing projects.”
As to the rest, Hunt said, “We’ve made some progress on that, but I expect that to move a little bit as the league continues its discussion. That’s going to be a little bit of a dynamic process that will be worked out.”
Sources have said that recent discussions have started to coalesce around a cap of 10% of a team’s total equity to owned by funds, but that also is subject to change.
Hunt said his fellow owners have become more comfortable with allowing institutional funds into the league. “Obviously the litmus test will be when we get to voting on it,” he said
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he supported the committee’s work, and said that opposition in the room isn’t about specific details. “I think it’s just wanting to look for consequences,” Jones said. “It’s new, so you got to look around the corners, see what the consequence might be.”
Goodell did not directly address a question about whether sovereign wealth funds or other institutional capital would be part of the program, but said the pool of interested players was bigger than assumed. “I think there are a number of other funds that are interested in this beyond those we would call purpose-specific,” Goodell said. “And so I think there are a lot of private equity firms, larger ones, that have an interest.”
