Joe Tsai, already an investor in the NBA, WNBA, MLS and two pro lacrosse leagues, is now part owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
The NFL’s board governors on Wednesday approved of Joe Tsai’s purchase of a 3% stake in the Miami Dolphins at a price estimated at more than $200 million, expanding Tsai’s stakes in professional sports teams to pro football for the first time. The vote took place at the NFL’s winter meetings in Dallas.
In addition to the Dolphins interests, Tsai now currently holds majority stakes in the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets; the WNBA’s champion New York Liberty; two franchises in the National Lacrosse League, the San Diego Seals and Las Vegas Desert Dogs; as well as a minority stake in Major League Soccer’s LAFC. Tsai also controls the biggest stake in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and is a leading investor in the Premier Lacrosse League which as a unitary league owns all the operation’s franchises.
The stake in the Dolphins also includes a piece of both Hard Rock Stadium and the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, according to reports. The purchase values the Dolphins at $8.1 billion. Steve Ross, the long time owner of the Dolphins, will continue to run the franchise along with daughter Jennifer. There appears that there is no path to ownership for Tsai.
Tsai is joined in his Dolphins investment by Oliver Weisberg, who runs Blue Pool Capital, his family investment vehicle, and is alternate governor for the Nets as well as Ares Management, a private equity firm. Tsai will acquire 2.9% of the team while Weisberg will own 0.1%, according to the Sports Business Journal. The los Angeles-based Ares is purchasing 10% on its own. The NFL only recently permitted private equity funds to purchase stakes in teams.
Weisberg has called sports its own asset class and predicted that Blue Pool would be investing in other sports franchises.
“Sports is at the top of the list. Sports has become an actual asset class now,” Weisberg told a Hong Kong investment symposium in April. “We believe that the rising interest in live sports, and the increasing growth in media rights, that’s something we’re super excited about. It’s not just the NFL, the NBA, the NHL. It’s women’s soccer, women’s basketball.”
Ross welcomed Tsai, Weisberg and Ares to the Dolphins’ ownership group Wednesday morning…
Miami Dolphins, Stephen M. Ross announce sale of limited interest to Ares Management for continued investment into South Florida
» https://t.co/nbN7W81U9E pic.twitter.com/k1QRo6jd1s
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) December 11, 2024
The investment in the Dolphins is Tsai’s first in pro sports since that comment. In June, his Blue Pool Capital did sell a 15% stake in the Nets, Liberty and Barclays Center to members of the Koch family led by Julia Koch at a reported price tag of nearly $700 million. She’s the widow of the late David Koch Sr., one of two brothers who made Koch Industries not just the second largest private company in the U.S. but also a force in Republican and libertarian politics contributing hundreds of millions of dollars across a wide spectrum of political campaigns. Koch’s son, David Jr., is currently a basketball operations assistant with the Nets.
In March 2018, Tsai joined a Michael Rubin-led group to buy the Carolina Panthers but that bid was ultimately unsuccessful.
- Dolphins, Bills sell stakes in team to private equity firms for first time in NFL history ($) – Tashan Reed – The Athletic