Goodell Joins NFL Private Equity Meetings as League Mulls Next Steps

The NFL hosted several meetings Thursday at its headquarters with private equity firms, as the league continues to move ahead with plans to open its cap table to institutional money.

The NFL was represented in the room by commissioner Roger Goodell, finance executive Joe Siclare, CFO Christine Dorfler, and league lawyers Jeffrey Pash and Jay Bauman, according to multiple people familiar with the process and who were granted anonymity because the matter is private. Representatives from PJT Partners, which the NFL hired to assist the process, were also there.

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Members of the committee formed last year to explore changes to the NFL system tuned in via Zoom. That committee includes Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who is chairman of the NFL’s finance committee, plus Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Denver Broncos owner Greg Penner.

One of the meetings was with Arctos Partners and another was with a consortium that includes Carlyle, Blackstone, CVC and Dynasty Equity, the people said. One person compared the gathering of executives from the consortium akin to “The Avengers.” It was unclear the other PE firms that had meetings with the league. The presentations covered who the firms are, what their plans are and why private equity is a good fit for the NFL. The NFL side had high-level questions, but did not provide any guidance on next steps in the process.

The NFL and the private equity firms present declined to comment on the meetings.

The PE committee is sorting though several issues, including the size of the investments allowed and whether groups will need to raise NFL-specific funds. The NFL will then need to draft its policy and put the plan to a full owner vote.

The NFL is the only major U.S. league that does not allow institutional investors. It has spent more than a year monitoring other leagues. Most insiders expect the world’s richest league to be significantly more conservative than its peers, which would track with its tighter ownership rules in areas like governance and team sales. While other leagues moved quickly to on-board new investors, the NFL has deliberately discussed how to approach the topic more carefully.

The NBA, MLB, MLS and NWSL all allow funds to hold up to 30% of a team’s equity. The NFL has been discussing the 10% range, with some owners pushing for something closer to 5%, sources said. The other major leagues also have not required that funds raise separate capital for their franchise investments.

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The average NFL team is worth $5.93 billion, according to Sportico valuations published on Tuesday. As that number continues to grow, the number of people with the money (and interest) to buy minority stakes keeps shrinking. Control sales of the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders raised questions about whether the league was “too big to sell,” and there are currently several large minority stakes on the market yet to trade.

Most people around the league consider it a foregone conclusion that owners will vote to allow some sort of institutional option. A handful of teams already have term sheets ready to execute should the rules allow, sources said, with others in the market right now discussing potential stakes with both individual and institutional backers.

Commissioner Roger Goodell told owners to be prepared for a potential meeting Aug. 27 should a private equity vote be required. Another option is the regular fall NFL meetings, which are scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16 in Atlanta.

With assistance from Eben Novy-Williams.

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