Two executives at Apollo Sports Capital (ASC) have now conveyed the company’s desire to invest in the NFL.
Chief Strategy Officer Sam Porter said so on Sept. 15, at the Asset Class event Front Office Sports was holding in New York. He noted the NFL’s “massive audience,” its “massive connection” with the American people, its “goal to grow globally.” The NFL is “the biggest league in the world in terms of revenue” and thus something to consider doing business with, “either through a partnership with a club or whatever that looks like.” Apollo, he continued, is “still in the early stages of that.”
Five days earlier, at Bloomberg Power Players New York, CEO Al Tylis had said: “We’re interested in any great sports property anywhere in the world, which clearly includes the NFL.”
ASC, though, has yet to make the NFL’s list of private-equity firms approved for investment: a list the league has never extended. In fact, since its establishment, in August 2024, that list has only shrunk.
Blackstone and CVC left the Curtis Martin consortium in May 2025. That has left Arctos, Sixth Street, Ares and a reduced consortium of Dynasty Equity, Carlyle and Ludis.
The NFL has neither set forth procedures specific to admission nor set plans for expansion, but it has left the door open. The listed firms, in any case, were vetted by the NFL Finance Committee, which performed its analysis in 2024, following up on the work of a special ownership committee set up the previous year.
Changes in NFL ownership pass by a three-quarters majority vote of the owners. An extension of the list would likely have to clear the same threshold.
ASC, if subject to the established terms, would have to sign a long-form agreement, have at least $2 billion in committed capital, take no governance rights, take no preferred equity, hold any investment for at least six years, acquire a stake of at least 3 percent and no more than 10 percent in any team, invest no more than 20 percent of its funds in any one team, share the maximum 10 percent per team with any other private-equity investor in that team, invest in no more than six teams, and yield to the league a share of any profits derived from its NFL investments. Each deal would require its own approval.
ASC is permanent capital, so six years would likely leave it unfazed, but it invests predominantly in credit and hybrid deals. Two of ASC’s team deals are not passive. The unit is the majority owner of Atlético Madrid, and, if a financing deal worth $2.6 billion goes through, ASC’s CEO will be filling a seat on the board of Yankee Global Enterprises, owner of the New York Yankees. According to the New York Post, moreover, the Yankees deal includes both common equity and preferred stock.
The NFL will be holding its Fall League Meeting on Oct. 20-21 in New York City. There is no public notice of the agenda.
