American football legend Tom Brady is reportedly set to be approved as a new minority owner of the National Football League (NFL) franchise, the Las Vegas Raiders.
The NFL’s 32 franchise owners will vote on whether to accept Brady’s minority stake entry into team ownership at the NFL’s upcoming owners meeting on October 15 in Atlanta, Georgia, with 24 of the 32 required to approve the sale.
Brady has already been unanimously approved for his minority shareholding by the NFL’s finance committee, which the NFL owners collective have rarely if ever voted against.
Brady’s stake is set to be worth reportedly around 10% of the franchise, which financial publication Forbes estimates as being worth $6.7 billion as a whole.
The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback is understood to be purchasing the stake in partnership with businessman Tom Wagner of Knighthead Capital Management, who also partnered with Brady on the purchase of the Birmingham City English soccer club (of which Brady now owns a minimal amount).
Their stake in the Raiders will be purchased directly from owner Mark Davis. Once approved, as is expected, Brady will become just the third former NFL player to transition to NFL stake ownership, following former Chicago Bears owner George Halas, and former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson.
Unlike Richardson and Halas, who both were controlling majority owners of their respective franchises, Brady will only have a minority stake in the Raiders and little to no input on the team’s operations.
This is predominantly down to the inflation of the value of NFL franchises, which are now multi-billion dollar companies in their own right, and would likely require a level of wealth that Brady, who made around $530 million in career earnings in the NFL and is now an analyst for the sport on the Fox Network, would not be able to amass alone, hence why he is partnering with Wagner for even just a minority stake.
The Fox analyst role for the network's NFL coverage is on a lucrative 10-year, $375-million contract, one which is not expected to be affected by his Raiders ownership.
Brady's attempt to take a stake in the Raiders has been an ongoing for over a year, with his intention to bid first reported in May 2023.
Brady is also part of Davis' Las Vegas Aces ownership group, having acquired a stake in the WNBA women’s basketball franchise in March.
Brady, who spent 23 seasons in the NFL and won six Super Bowls, was reportedly interested in acquiring a minority ownership stake in the Miami Dolphins in 2021 and 2022.
However, a six-month NFL investigation determined that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and vice chairman Bruce Beal - a friend of Brady's - violated the league's anti-tampering policy in conversations with the former quarterback.
