Sports ownership is now an asset class — and advisors need an answer ready

Professional sports franchises are trading at prices that would have seemed implausible a decade ago — and the transaction volume of the past several weeks has made the asset class impossible for advisors to ignore. On July 11, 2026, the Paul G. Allen estate announced a definitive agreement to sell the Seattle Seahawks to a group led by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his family for a record $9.612 billion, according to ESPN — surpassing the previous NFL record of $6.05 billion set by the Washington Commanders sale in 2023 and approaching the North American professional sports record set by the Los Angeles Lakers, which sold for $10 billion in June 2025. On June 26, 2026, Lukas Walton and his wife Samantha, heirs to the Walmart fortune with a combined estimated net worth of $45 billion per Forbes, acquired a 10% minority stake in the Chicago Bulls and the United Center, with CNBC reporting the Bulls' current valuation at approximately $6.45 billion — the fifth-highest in the NBA.

And on July 23, 2026, Mark Cuban's Atlanta-based private equity firm Harbinger Sports Partners — co-founded with Atlanta Falcons minority owner Rashaun Williams, former MLB CFO Jonathan Mariner, and former AMBSE CEO Steve Cannon — acquired an undisclosed minority stake in the Athletics ahead of the franchise's planned move to Las Vegas in 2028, with the firm targeting $750 million in total capital across 10 to 12 sports franchise investments, according to TheStreet.

The World Economic Forum's Global Sports Report 2025 forecast the global sports economy growing from $2.3 trillion in 2025 to $8.8 trillion by 2050. For advisors whose ultra-high-net-worth clients are paying attention, the question is no longer theoretical: what is the investment case, who actually has access, and where are the real opportunities beyond buying a team?

Sports offers alpha, not just beta — but only for discerning investors

Kurt Nye, managing partner and chief investment officer at MAI Capital Management, argues that the most important distinction in sports investing is between beta and alpha.

Exposure to rising franchise valuations broadly — what Nye calls "sports beta" — is not particularly compelling on its own. What he finds interesting is the opportunity to invest with experienced operators who have a credible plan for value creation: roll-ups of fragmented industries within the sports ecosystem, professionalization of family-owned businesses adjacent to sports, and direct access to private equity, private debt, real estate, and venture capital opportunities that happen to be sport-adjacent. The WEF's forecast of $8.8 trillion in global sports economy by 2050 represents the tailwind. The alpha, in his view, comes from identifying the operators and strategies positioned to capture a disproportionate share of that growth.

"There is a misunderstanding that sports investing is mostly about purchasing stakes in teams. Sports assets often carry unique traits like a highly sticky consumer base, strong barriers to entry, and contractual revenue streams. We believe that there are opportunities across the sports economy including private equity, private debt, real estate, and even venture capital. We're less enthusiastic about sports 'beta' exposure and we're looking at those value creation levers as a way to drive alpha," Nye said.

MAI's 50-year history in the sports ecosystem gives Nye a sourcing advantage that most advisors cannot replicate — a network of operators and due diligence relationships that surfaces investment opportunities across fund structures and direct deals. 

Scarcity is structural, but access is everything — and the financial case comes first

Ronald Diamond, Founder and Chairman of Diamond Wealth Strategies, frames the investment case for professional sports franchises around two structural facts: profitability and scarcity.

Major franchises generate meaningful, recurring revenue from media rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, and stadium and arena economics. The 32 NFL teams and 30 NBA teams represent a fixed supply of assets that rarely trade, with far more qualified buyers than available sellers at any given time — a supply-demand dynamic that has driven valuations steadily higher across cycles. Diamond has identified at least 156 billionaire families with publicly-known investments in professional sports, and he estimates the actual figure is meaningfully higher given that many minority investors remain private.

"Scarcity matters. There are only 32 NFL teams and 30 NBA teams. These assets rarely come up for sale, and there are far more qualified buyers than available franchises. That has helped values rise significantly over time. Having the money does not guarantee access. A family may be able to write the check and still never see the opportunity because many of these deals stay within a small circle," Diamond said.

For families who cannot purchase a controlling stake, Diamond says the most realistic path is a direct minority co-investment alongside a lead owner or a consortium of trusted family offices — deals that are shared through relationships, not marketed broadly. Funds are a viable alternative for families seeking broader exposure without direct access, but Diamond is explicit that manager quality, fee structure, and underlying asset selection require rigorous independent review. He also flags the emerging opportunity in women's sports and newer professional leagues as a smaller entry point with meaningful upside — and higher operating risk, given that many of those business models are still being established. 

Women's sports and emerging leagues are still at the ground floor

Joel R. Freedman, managing director and founder of Eclipse Private Wealth Management, frames the structural sports investment case around the same two attributes as Diamond: scarcity and uncorrelated returns. Television rights, in particular, derive their value from the fact that live sports remain one of the few forms of content that audiences must watch in real time, which gives advertisers a captive premium audience that digital streaming cannot replicate.

For clients who will never purchase a direct team stake, Freedman points to evergreen funds — perpetual, open-ended vehicles that hold minority stakes across teams, leagues, and sports-adjacent operating businesses, with periodic redemption windows instead of a fixed exit date — as the most appropriate access point for qualified investors. He is explicit that "evergreen" does not mean "liquid." It means less illiquid than a traditional 10-year drawdown structure, and clients should understand the distinction before allocating.

"You don't need to own the team in order to own the trend. We compare women's sports to the NBA of the 1980s, compressed into a fraction of the time, with a media rights engine underneath it that didn't exist the first time around. Institutional capital used to wait decades for a sport to prove itself; that timeline has condensed dramatically, creating opportunities that some investors may find worth evaluating," Freedman said.

Freedman's highest-conviction area is women's professional sports. The average WNBA franchise is now valued at $427 million, up 59% from 2025 and up 345% from 2024, according to Sportico's May 2026 valuation analysis. Forbes separately calculated a 52% year-over-year increase to an average of $414 million across 13 teams. The WNBA's new broadcast agreements, shared with the NBA, allocate $2.2 billion to the league over 11 years — a 500% increase over prior arrangements — with total media revenue reaching approximately $281 million annually when additional deals with Ion, CBS Sports, and USA Network are included, according to RealGM and Sportico. For the NWSL, the Columbus soccer expansion franchise fee reached $205 million in late 2025, up from $165 million for Atlanta's entry just months earlier, according to ESPN, reflecting the same valuation trajectory in compressed form.

Freedman is also watching emerging sports leagues, citing the Premier Lacrosse League's recent $100 million funding round — valuing the league above $500 million — and the unification of pickleball's two largest circuits, the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball, following a combined $225 million investment that valued the merged entity at $750 million, as evidence that institutional capital is now compressing what previously took decades into years. The return of lacrosse to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program is a specific catalyst Freedman is watching as a driver of mainstream awareness. 

Taken together, the three advisors describe a conversation that has moved from novelty to legitimate portfolio planning territory. The recent wave of record transactions — the Seahawks, Lakers, Bulls stake, and Cuban's Athletics investment — has put sports ownership in clients' inboxes in a way that requires a prepared response. The advisors best positioned to add value here are those who have thought through the distinction between team ownership, sports-adjacent private markets, and fund-based exposure before the client asks — because the question is already in the room. InvestmentNews will continue tracking the evolution of sports as an institutional asset class.