Owning a sports team has long been a goal of the ultra-rich, but expanding that into an empire—with multiple teams across various leagues—is a winning strategy for creating generational wealth. Having a portfolio of teams allows an owner to sell cross-sponsorships, develop mixed-use real estate and expand into new distribution channels with greater ease. A sports empire can also take the pressure off any single team a sports owner has, acting as a hedge for rebuilding years. And it almost always pays off.
In 2024, the 25 most valuable sports empires in the world have an aggregate enterprise value of $216 billion—or an average of $8.6 billion—which represents an increase of 24% from a year ago. The main reason for the rise? Team values have been growing at a robust pace. On average, the 124 teams in MLB, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL went up 21% in value in 2023 versus the prior year. All of which has made it much harder to earn a place on this annual ranking—the cutoff this year is $4.95 billion, 38% higher than a year ago.
The biggest gainer on this year’s empires list is Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, up 155% from last year to $11.9 billion thanks mainly to Josh Harris’ purchase of the Washington Commanders in July for a record $6.05 billion. HBSE now effectively runs a group of assets from many of the world’s most popular sports: the NFL (Commanders), the NBA (Philadelphia 76ers), the NHL (New Jersey Devils), the English Premier League (Crystal Palace), Nascar (Joe Gibbs Racing) and youth sports (Ripken Baseball).
This story is from the Feb 2024 edition of Forbes Middle East - English.
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This story is from the Feb 2024 edition of Forbes Middle East - English.
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