The NFL hosted several meetings Thursday at its headquarters with private equity firms, as the league continues to move ahead with plans to open its cap table to institutional money.
The NFL was represented in the room by commissioner Roger Goodell, finance executive Joe Siclare, CFO Christine Dorfler, and league lawyers Jeffrey Pash and Jay Bauman, according to multiple people familiar with the process and who were granted anonymity because the matter is private. Representatives from PJT Partners, which the NFL hired to assist the process, were also there.
More from Sportico.com
Members of the committee formed last year to explore changes to the NFL system tuned in via Zoom. That committee includes Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who is chairman of the NFL’s finance committee, plus Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Denver Broncos owner Greg Penner.
One of the meetings was with Arctos Partners and another was with a consortium that includes Carlyle, Blackstone, CVC and Dynasty Equity, the people said. One person compared the gathering of executives from the consortium akin to “The Avengers.” It was unclear the other PE firms that had meetings with the league. The presentations covered who the firms are, what their plans are and why private equity is a good fit for the NFL. The NFL side had high-level questions, but did not provide any guidance on next steps in the process.
The NFL and the private equity firms present declined to comment on the meetings.
The PE committee is sorting though several issues, including the size of the investments allowed and whether groups will need to raise NFL-specific funds. The NFL will then need to draft its policy and put the plan to a full owner vote.
The NFL is the only major U.S. league that does not allow institutional investors. It has spent more than a year monitoring other leagues. Most insiders expect the world’s richest league to…
Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/goodell-joins-nfl-private-equity-223801308.html
Author : Sportico
Publish date : 2024-08-15 22:38:01
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.