Ex-MLB player turned wealth executive questions expansion team math

As the NBA nears a decision on a Las Vegas expansion franchise reportedly priced at $12 billion to $13 billion with a new arena, a former pro athlete now advising RIAs says buying into an existing team may be the smarter investment play.

Matt LaPorta, an executive-in-residence at St. Petersburg, Florida-based Dynasty Financial Partners, told InvestmentNews the math behind expansion teams gives investors pause. Both the MLB and NBA are progressing in plans to add new teams. In addition to the expansion fee, new owners also usually have to make plans for a new stadium.  

“I think the challenge with expansion teams, not saying we wouldn't get into them, but you look at it and you go, okay, baseball is a $2 billion fee for just the expansion, that's before you put a shovel in the dirt, before you bring people on, said LaPorta, an ex-MLB player. "Then you've got a stadium that's $2 billion. So you're probably four, four and a half billion dollars into this thing before you play a game. So you start to look and go, is there a better opportunity? Can I go buy a team for $3 billion right now?" 

ESPN reported this week that three groups—Walmart heir Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo—are among the finalists for the NBA’s expansion franchise in Las Vegas. The reported price is “at least $12 billion to $13 billion for the franchise and a new arena.” 

LaPorta played in four MLB seasons for Cleveland from 2009 to 2012 and has since become a private equity investor that does deals across the sports industry.  He joined Dynasty’s RIA network in June 2026 to support its sports investing and athlete services. Dynasty's network includes more than 725 advisors with over $125 billion in assets. 

Why existing teams may offer better value 

LaPorta's fee figure may prove conservative. ESPN reported in September 2026 that the MLB expansion fee is expected in the $2.5 billion range, lifted by the recent record-setting sales of the Los Angeles Angels for $4 billion and the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion. 

LaPorta said the Padres price looks better against the cost of starting from scratch. The Padres were sold to Clearlake Capital co-founder José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones. 

"If you peel it back, you go, 'Well, it's actually not that crazy.' He's buying an asset that's already producing and growing at a cheaper value than he would if he did the new expansion team," LaPorta said. "It's a heavy lift for an expansion team." 

ESPN reported that six cities have emerged as the leading candidates to make MLB expansion bids. Those cities are Salt Lake City, Utah, Orlando, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., Portland, Oregon, Raleigh, NC, and Montreal.  

“It’ll be interesting to see where [MLB commissioner] Rob Manfred puts the two new teams. I think it'll be good for the league,” said LaPorta.  

Private equity stays in the minority 

Institutional capital is moving deeper into established crown jewel franchises. The New York Yankees announced a $2.6 billion financing agreement with Apollo Sports Capital in August 2026, giving the private equity firm a reported 16% stake in the team. Front Office Sports reported that MLB owners voted this summer to raise the private equity ownership limit to 20%, up from 15%.

The NBA, NHL and MLS allow one private equity firm to own a maximum of 20% in a franchise, while the NFL is capped at 10%. While rules across these leagues allow private equity firms to take minority stakes in multiple teams in the same league, LaPorta does not envision that expanding to majority stakes. Competitive protections and other integrity concerns in sports would prevent private equity from gaining control of multiple teams in the same league, limiting PE’s ability to deploy its common “roll-up” consolidation strategy used in other industries.

“I think it gets hard for a private equity group to be control or majority of a sports team, because now you have concentration risk. You're only invested into one baseball, one football team because you can't be control in four or five teams, that's not ever going to work,” he said. “I think what they'll do is just ratchet up how much a private equity firm can invest into a sports team.” 

How Dynasty advisors get access 

Dynasty, whose CEO Shirl Penney once backed an Alex Rodriguez-led bid for the New York Mets, favors co-investing alongside large private equity firms over investing directly in their funds, giving clients a stake in a specific team rather than a broad portfolio. 

“There has been deals so far in the sports ecosystem. I just was with one of our network partners last week, and they want to see more of those deals because it's a great talking point for advisors to talk to their clients, and to clients that they're trying to attract to their firm,” LaPorta said.

For advisors fielding client interest in the sports industry, LaPorta said the right investor needs both liquidity and patience. 

"Somebody that has the liquidity to write maybe a seven-figure check into a deal, and also be okay with not seeing a return on that for 7, 10, 15 years. It's a longer-term hold, longer-term play," he said. 

"We don't want to bring something just because it's in the NBA or NFL to the table just to say we did it, right?" LaPorta added. "We want to make sure it's a good value for the people that we're advising. It has to be good value for our network partners and our clients.”