In pro sports, even the superrich are being priced out of owning a team
Source: Fortune ·
Private equity now backs 74 North American teams, Goldman Sachs says. Wealthy individuals increasingly get in through minority stakes, funds, and bank financing.
From the source
The days when a rich family could buy a team as a passion project are over, according to a senior Goldman Sachs wealth executive. “Gone are the days when a single family might have a passion project and buy a team for a few hundred million,” Nicole Pullen Ross, who heads Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Management Sports & Entertainment Solutions, told Fortune. Only “a very short list” of the world’s wealthiest people could afford to invest in or purchase a team outright, she added. Pullen Ross is a contributor to Playing for Scale, the second edition of a report on sports investing from Pullen Ross’ team and the first since Getting in the Game in 2024. The report is written for the bank’s private wealth clients. Its argument is that the way into team ownership has changed. Institutions are now a major force pushing valuations up, and wealthy individuals get in through smaller stakes, loans and structures the bank can help arrange. Institutional money drove much of that change. Private…