Several Potential Buyers Want Minority Ownership In The NFL, But Whose Pockets Are Deep Enough

CHARLOTTE, NC — The list of people reportedly interested in buying the Carolina Panthers include rich guys like P-Diddy, Steph Curry, Felix Sabtes and others, but being a majority NFL owner means having a 30 percent stake in the team.

“If you want to be a majority owner of an nfl franchise, you really need to be a billionaire,” says Forbes Magazine’s Kurt Badenhausen. You also need to be ready to write a check for at least 600 million dollars.

Majority, or controlling owner, is the key term.

It means you own at least 30 percent of the team. Jerry Richardson and his family own a reported 49 percent.

“I think this new owner is going to be scrutinized like crazy,” says Badenhausen, “cause they want this to be a really clean transaction, in light of why Mr. Richardson put the team up for sale, and also because of the scrutiny the NFL has faced over the last two years.”

Forbes Magazine values the Panthers at 2.3 billion dollars. The sales price could be even more though, which means the pool of potential majority owners is slim.

Badenhausen says, “Diddy, by Forbes count is worth 840 million dollars. I love Diddy, but he’s not going to be the majority owner of the Charlotte Panthers, unless he puts his entire net worth into the team, and I don’t think the NFL wants that.”

Worldwide there are about 2,000 billionaires. Most of them aren’t American, and only a handful in this country are minority.

“There’s only three black Americans who are billionaires, by Forbes’ count, and I don’t know if Oprah Winfrey has a taste for football or if Michael Jordan is busy with his Charlotte basketball team.”

While big named investors like Felix Sabates, Steph Curry, and others may be able to afford an ownership stake in the team, experts don’t believe they would be solid financial candidates to be majority owner.

International investors may also have other NFL owners ready to punt.

“I don’t think they’re going to target minorities. I think number one, they’re going to look at price and how well capitalized that new ownership group is,” says Dr. Craig Depkin at UNC Charlotte. “Do you think people don’t realize, rich isn’t enough, you kind of have to be wealthy? I think that is the bigger difference, right.”

Depkin goes on to say, “To buy a controlling interest you’re looking at having to be a billionaire in terms of assets and liquidity is important…” because whoever sells the franchise, in this case Mr. Richardson, will want his money pretty quickly.

Ultimately, the sale and sales price could go up because the other team owners will be looking to set the bar high to inflate their own franchises.

Experts say don’t expect a deal to be reached anytime soon.

While the NFL may already accepting bids, the league likely won’t start seriously looking at the sale until after the Super Bowl.