Less than 5 years ago, NBA franchises were selling for “only” $2 billion. I say “only”, because we just saw the Lakers get bought out for $10B by Mark Walton, only to get flipped for $12B one year later. The difference between price between selling the Lakers in 2025 vs. 2026 could have bought you the entire Timberwolves franchise.
As sports franchises continue to skyrocket in price, it begs the question: who even has enough cash to buy these teams?
For more than a hundred years, sports franchises have been owned by individual families. Think of Jerry Jones for the Cowboys or the Allen family for the Seahawks. With prices continuing to rise exponentially, however, the number of individuals who can buy these teams is becoming increasingly small. While tech giants like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have gaudy net-worth valuations, these founders generally have close to $0 available cash. The majority of their spending comes in the form of private loans, using their stocks as leverage.
Look no further than Elon Musk’s catastrophic acquisition of Twitter. Elon Musk, said to be worth nearly $1 Trillion, could barely scrounge up enough money to pay for Twitters $44B price tag. His financial state was in such shambles, that he repeatedly tried to renege against the contractual deal he signed with Twitter, until they took him to the courts to force his hand. When all your capital is in stocks, your hands are tied. If you plan to liquid billions of dollars, all you end up doing is tanking the value of the stock in the process.
So who actually has billions in cash?
The list is short, and basically includes Saudi Arabian royalty, private equity firms, and the most corrupt business men on the planet (look no further than the Trump kids who just bought the Lakers, and how they became rich off of insider trading).
In all likelihood, the future owner of the Seattle SuperSonics will be one of those 3. So while it’s good for the players and the teams that the sports are continuing to grow, the future of sports ownership is becoming bleaker by the second.