Private Equity in Sports · 2026
Private Equity Is Increasingly Influencing the Business of Sports
For the period 2002 to 2024, the average NBA franchise's value grew more than three times as much as the S&P 500's total return, according to PitchBook. Inside: the leagues, the deals, and the structures opening the asset class to allocators.
Download Report PDFThe Return Picture
Cumulative Growth, 2002 to 2024
Average franchise value by league versus the S&P 500 total return (dividends reinvested), per PitchBook.
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (data from Sportico, Forbes, and PitchBook; as of December 31, 2024). These figures compare different asset classes with distinct liquidity, valuation methods, access constraints, and risk characteristics and are provided for contextual and illustrative purposes only.
What this comparison does and does not capture
- The S&P 500 figure is a total return (dividends reinvested); the league figures are franchise value appreciation only, with no owner distributions added, so the comparison is conservative toward franchises.
- Franchise values are third-party estimates (unobservable, Level 3 inputs), updated infrequently and not investable as an index; the S&P 500 is daily, transacted, and observable.
- The two differ materially in liquidity, valuation method, leverage, fees and carry, tax treatment, and investor rights, and are not directly comparable. Past performance does not predict future results.
How Access Works
Every Major League Now Permits Institutional Minority Capital
Each league sets its own rules on how much a fund can own, how many teams it can hold, and how long it must stay. The door opened progressively: MLB first in 2019, the NBA, MLS, and NHL soon after, and the NFL in 2024.
| Rule | NFL | NBA | MLB | NHL | MLS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max stake a team can sell to PE | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| Max stake one PE fund can own | 10% | 20% | 15% | 20% | 20% |
| Max teams one firm can hold | 6 | 5 | Unlimited | 5 | 4 |
| Avg. franchise value | $6.5B | $4.7B | $2.6B | $1.9B | $0.7B |
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (league sources; as of March 31, 2025). Stakes are passive, carry no voting rights, and are subject to minimum hold periods (six years in the NFL, five in the NBA and NHL).
Notable Deals
Minority Stakes, Institutional Checks
Recent transactions span control sales and passive minority positions, priced by firms including Arctos, Ares, Sixth Street, Blue Owl, and Silver Lake.
| Team | League | Investor / Stake | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Commanders | NFL | Josh Harris control (Arctos & Ares LP capital) | $6.05B (2023) |
| Boston Celtics | NBA | Chisholm / STG control (Sixth Street $1B) | $6.1B (2025) |
| Miami Dolphins | NFL | Ares 10% + Joe Tsai 3% | $8.1B (2024) |
| San Francisco 49ers | NFL | 6.2% to new LPs | $8.6B (2025) |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | Blue Owl consortium (Arctos partial exit) | $1.8B (vs. $650M in 2021) |
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025. Past performance does not predict future results.
The Thesis
Why Institutional Capital Keeps Writing the Check
01
Scarcity
Leagues average roughly 30 teams with little expansion. Fewer available assets makes each one more valuable over time.
02
Media-Rights Escalation
The largest value driver. The NBA's new agreement brings roughly $6.9B annually — approximately tripling prior revenue to $76B over 11 years. The NFL's media deals run near $10B a year.
03
Multiple Revenue Channels
Tickets, media, sponsorship, licensing, real estate, and betting partnerships diversify the revenue stack and reduce dependence on any single source.
04
Resilience, Not Immunity
Per PitchBook, the only periods in the past two decades when leagues lost money were the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the start of COVID in 2020. Resilient is not the same as risk-free.
05
Access Has Widened
MLB opened to institutional funds in 2019, the NBA, MLS, and NHL followed, and the NFL permitted limited minority stakes in 2024. The NBA has gone further — admitting pensions, endowments, and sovereign funds to passive positions.
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (NBA media terms via ESPN/AP, July 10, 2024).
A Benchmarked Asset Class
Franchises Now Have Their Own Index
A sign of how far the asset class has matured: the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Arctos built the Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index (RASFI), described as the first data-driven benchmark for Big Four franchise values. RASFI spans more than 60 years and 400+ transactions and is updated quarterly. Per the public index, franchise values have compounded at roughly ~13% per year over six decades.
SOURCE: University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Arctos, "Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index," public methodology (May 2024); launch coverage, Pensions & Investments (Bloomberg), June 4, 2024.
Read this figure carefully
- RASFI is a price-return index (it does not capture distributions) and is not investable: by its authors' description, it is an illustrative model of the average franchise, not a tradable security.
- It measures the average control-level franchise value, which is not the same as a minority limited partner's return after fees, carry, and the limits of a passive stake.
- Index values can revise as historical transactions are added. Past performance does not predict future results.
Penetration by League
Where institutional capital has landed
Share of teams that are PE-backed or PE-affiliated ("PE-connected"), with each league's total franchise value.
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (as of May 20, 2025). "PE-connected" combines PE-backed and PE-affiliated teams. NWSL stands at 62.5% on a $1.5B base. "Affiliated" is a broad definition (teams backed by individuals from the PE industry).
Capital Flowing In
From a Trickle to Dedicated Multibillion-Dollar Funds
PE invested roughly $2 billion in team stakes in 2021 — the first real wave. Since then, managers have raised dedicated vehicles at scale.
~$2B
PE invested in team stakes in 2021 — the first real wave
10+
Sports-dedicated PE funds raising or recently closed in 2024–25
$1B+
Target size of multiple individual sports-focused vehicles now in market
Sources: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (2021 deal volume); Sports Business Journal, "Proliferation of sports funds highlights growing need for differentiation," June 16, 2025 (count of sports-dedicated funds raising and individual fund target sizes).
The Expanding College Landscape
Now college programs carry billion-dollar valuations
CNBC's December 2025 ranking valued the top 75 college athletic programs at a combined $51.22 billion, up 13% in a year, with 13 programs now worth more than $1 billion (up from four in 2024). Programs are valued on the total revenue of all their sports.
| 1. Texas | $1.48B |
| 2. Ohio State | $1.35B |
| 3. Texas A&M | $1.32B |
| 4. Georgia | $1.16B |
| 5. Michigan | $1.155B |
| Top 75 combined | $51.22B |
Source: CNBC, "CNBC's Official College Sports Valuations 2025," Michael Ozanian, December 19, 2025. These are revenue-based valuations, not transaction prices, and direct institutional ownership of college programs remains limited and contested.
The Next Frontier
The Youth-Sports Opportunity
A large and fragmented market spanning participation, facilities, media, and technology.
27.3M
Youth athletes ages 6 to 17 in the United States
$1,491
Average annual family spending on youth sports
~$41B
Total parental spending across U.S. youth athletes (27.3M × $1,491)
$114B
Projected global youth-sports market by 2032 (third-party estimate)
Sources: Aspen Institute Project Play / SFIA / market-sizing estimates. Any larger "total spend" headline includes non-parental and institutional spending. Market projections vary widely by provider and are estimates.
Streaming & AI
Rights Are Getting Spread, and Getting Expensive
~$56B
Est. global value of live sports media rights (2023)
81 of 100
Top-100 U.S. TV broadcasts in 2024 that were sporting events
$76B
NBA's new 11-year media agreement (~3× prior deal)
AI is reshaping monetization and consumption: personalized highlights, real-time in-broadcast analytics, and cross-industry ownership platforms spanning content, gaming, real estate, and fan data.
Sources: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025 (citing Sportico, Feb 2024 and Jan 2025; ESPN/AP, July 2024). Live-rights market sizing is a third-party forecast.
Risks to Weigh
The other side of the ledger
An honest case includes the risks. These are drawn directly from the same PitchBook note.
Illiquidity & long holds
Stakes are passive and subject to multi-year minimum hold periods. Sales historically took months or years — and that was before PE capital entered at scale.
Exits are unproven
The exit process is still in its infancy. Most realized returns to date have come only when an entire team was sold — not when a fund chose to exit a minority stake.
Subjective valuation
Marks rely on third-party estimates and infrequent comparable transactions — not continuous observable prices. Level 3 inputs; the gap between estimated and realized value can be material.
Event & timing risk
Lockouts and the timing of long-term media-rights negotiations can suppress growth for years if they coincide with a fund's exit window.
Source: PitchBook, "Private Capital in Sports: PE Is Up to Bat," May 23, 2025. Fees, carry, and the limited rights of a minority position further separate gross franchise appreciation from an investor's net, after-fee experience.
Concluding Thoughts
One of the last frontiers for real, shared experience
As leagues open to institutional capital, allocators have new ways to access the sports economy. The opportunity is real; so are the risks of illiquidity, single-asset concentration, subjective valuation, and fees. The two belong together.
On the Crystal Platform
A growing set of sports-oriented exposures,
through one platform.
Advisors can build customized portfolios of hedge fund and private-market exposures touching the sports economy, delivered through Crystal's institutional-quality structures for the independent advisor channel.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES
Statements about sports franchises and related markets rely on third-party sources believed to be reliable but not independently verified by Crystal Capital Partners. Franchise and program valuations cited are third-party estimates and are inherently subjective unless expressly identified as a completed transaction price. Comparisons to public equity indices are illustrative only; the assets differ materially in liquidity, valuation methodology, leverage, fees, tax treatment, and investor rights, and are not directly comparable. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly.