NFL Owners approve equity sales for Giants, Patriots and 49ers

The owners decided last August to permit private equity to buy a seat at the NFL table, and thereby add new dimensions to the old game of media rights, sponsorships, licensing and infrastructure – not to mention the emerging world of data collection and fan services. And every sale sets a new dollar value on a team.

Chief among the equity deals is the sale of a “minority, non-controlling interest” – 10 percent for $1 billion, last we heard – in the New York Giants to Julia Koch and her family. According to the team, the deal “does not affect the current leadership structure of the Giants, with John Mara continuing in his role as President and CEO and Steve Tisch as Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Board.” 

Next up is the New England Patriots, whose sole owner since 1994, Robert Kraft, appears to have succeeded in his sale of 8 percent to Dean Metropoulos (5%) and Sixth Street Partners (3%), plans for which we detailed earlier this month. News of the owners’ approval comes to us from a radio station in Boston, 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Finally, the San Francisco 49ers have themselves sold a “non-controlling, minority interest” – of 3.2 percent, according to the same radio station – to Pete Briger Jr. and his family. The team’s CEO, Jed York, remains in place.

Briger is Executive Chairman of Fortress Investment Group, which has about $53 billion under management and is headquartered in New York City, although Briger himself works out of Menlo Park, California.

This group was the primary lender to Millennium Development for the athletes’ village at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in Vancouver. One of its co-founders, Wes Edens, holds a stake in the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and, as co-owner of the holding company V Sports, stakes in the Premier League’s Aston Villa, the Premeira Liga’s Vitória SC and the Primera Federación’s Real Unión.