The Floor and the Premium Max Effgen, November 5, 2026November 4, 2026 Private Equity in the NFL After the October Meetings In October, Jean Eric Salata, chairman of the private-equity firm EQT, bought 2.1 percent of the Miami Dolphins for $262 million. He bought it for himself, at a $12.5 billion valuation, the same valuation Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin paid for 1 percent of the Dolphins earlier this year. In December 2024, Ares Management, a private-equity fund, bought 10 percent of the Dolphins at $8.1 billion. Salata, writing a personal check, paid about 54 percent more than a PE fund did for a piece of the same team. NFL franchise values have climbed sharply in the two years since private equity investment was allowed. This is the design. Inside NFL teams, institutional money is a price-taker: no vote, a hard 10 percent cap, and a six-year minimum hold. Owners applied that template again at their October 20 meeting in New York, approving Arctos as a limited partner in the Atlanta Falcons. At the same meeting, they approved a new investment venture between the league’s own fund, 32 Equity, and General Atlantic. The NFL holds private equity to 10 percent and no vote inside its 32 teams. Interestingly, the NFL just took a growth-equity firm on as a partner. Arctos, acquired by KKR, received approval for 7.5 percent of the Falcons, with a commitment to buy 2.5 percent more subject to a separate owners’ vote. Reporting has put the full 10 percent at a $10.6 billion valuation. The Falcons are Arctos’s fourth NFL team, after the Bills and Chargers (10 percent each) and the Browns. A single firm may hold stakes in at most six teams, so Arctos has two slots left. Arctos also is the only firm approved for multi-team ownership across all five major U.S. leagues. Seven teams now have private equity on the cap table: Bills, Chargers, Browns and Falcons (Arctos); Dolphins (Ares); Patriots (Sixth Street, 3% at a valuation above $9 billion); and Seahawks, where Front Office Sports reported Sixth Street at 3% and Carlyle and Dynasty Equity at about 3% combined. The team has not disclosed the stakes. For NFL owners, the money is liquidity for estate planning, stadium projects and the next generation, not a change in control. Individuals are paying premiums. Lin Bin and Salata both bought Dolphins stakes at $12.5 billion, well above the $8.1 billion Ares paid and the $10.6 billion reported for Arctos’s Falcons stake. The Koch family’s 10 percent of the Giants, reported at around $10 billion valuation, fits the same pattern. Institutions set the floor; individuals are paying premium valuations. The same day, NFL owners approved a joint venture between 32 Equity and the growth-equity firm General Atlantic to invest in companies building technologies, platforms and experiences in sports. Fund size, governance and General Atlantic’s economics have not been disclosed. If the league shares in the venture’s investment returns, that income would sit outside the salary-cap split. 32 Equity was built on owner money (approximately $256 million committed by late 2022) and holds positions that include a reported $320 million stake in Fanatics, Hyperice and Genius Sports. It has already exited On Location, and DAZN’s pending acquisition of EverPass would convert 32 Equity’s EverPass stake into DAZN shares. Adding General Atlantic brings an outside institution into the league’s own investment platform. Adding General Atlantic brings an outside institution into the league’s own investment platform, and the press release does not say how returns will be shared or disclosed. The first exits for private equity in the NFL are years away. The first approved stakes, Arctos in the Bills and Ares in the Dolphins in December 2024, cannot be sold before late 2030. Until then, the observable data are entry prices, the identity of the buyers, and the growth of the league’s own investment platform. Three open questions With Arctos at four teams and two slots left, will the league expand the approved-firm list before the next control-sale cycle, and does a larger institutional buyer set move the price of a capped, non-voting 10% stake? Will owners prefer returns from the General Atlantic venture over selling more passive team equity, and how large does that fund become once its size is disclosed? When the first PE stakes become eligible in late 2030, does the no-vote, league-consent structure leave a durable discount to what individuals pay, or does the institutional bid simply keep setting the floor? Notes on the business of business, sports leagues and innovation twice a week on LinkedIn. Avanti. Measure what matters. ...