Kansas City Chiefs Owner Sees Private Equity as Option for NFL

With valuations of NFL teams soaring, Clark Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, sees private equity investors as a potential source of capital for franchises.

“I don’t want to predict one way or another whether we will ultimately adopt it,” Hunt said in an interview with Bloomberg News prior to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. “But I do think it is avenue that can be helpful from a capital standpoint.”

The NFL last year set up a committee to assess whether to allow institutional capital to invest directly into franchises, and is expected to put forward recommendations before the league’s annual meeting in March. Hunt is chairman of the NFL’s finance committee, and a member of the ownership group.

“It’s a subject that we’ve been discussing for a couple years,” Hunt said. “Private equity ownership is allowed in the other four big US sports so we’ve had a chance to observe that unfold and it’s a topic we’re going to continue to discuss.”

Private equity firms have been making a bigger push into sports, led by firms including Arctos Sports Partners, Ares Management, and Dyal Capital.

The National Basketball Association has been steadily opening up to institutional investors, and in late 2022 allowed sovereign wealth funds, pensions and endowments acquire passive stakes in its teams.

The NFL remains off limits to private equity investors, instead relying on ultra-high-net-worth individuals to offer billions to buy franchises.