Roger Goodell, the commissioner of American football’s NFL, has opened the door to private equity investment in the league’s teams, albeit at a lower level than for other major US sports competitions.

Speaking to US news outlets last week (July 10), Goodell confirmed that private equity investment for as much as 10% of an NFL franchise is something that the league is considering approving ahead of the drafting of its latest set of ownership guidelines.

Goodell said of the prospective new rules: “We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest [from private equity firms], and we believe this could make sense for us in a limited fashion, probably no more than 10% of a team. That would be something we think could complement our ownership and support our ownership policies.”

The rules, likely to be set by the end of 2024, could potentially spur a rush of new investment into the NFL at a time when franchise valuations are higher than ever as owners may look to partially cash in on these soaring valuations while still maintaining control of their teams.

Private equity’s introduction into league ownership may also widen the pool of potential available team owners, as these rising valuations mean that only a select few now are rich enough to buy into the league, a fact that conversely locks current owners out of selling their assets when they may wish to divest.

The last NFL team to be sold, the Washington Commanders, was purchased by a consortium led by Josh Harris for a record price of $6.05 billion in 2023, with over 20 investors required to make up the equity cash necessary to buy the team.

North America’s NHL (ice hockey), NBA (basketball), MLB (baseball), and MLS (soccer) major leagues all currently allow private equity firms to take up to 30% stakes in their franchises, but the NFL is currently at another level commercially to the rest and has - up until now - had enough financial power that it has never needed to look at private equity as a source of investment.