Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) looks on during the second half of the game between the Carolina Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles on December 08, 2024 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA.
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The National Football League has approved the sale of a minority stake in the Philadelphia Eagles to two family investment groups.
The deal is for an 8% stake in the team and values the Eagles at $8.3 billion, according to a league source.
The sale was approved at the NFL owners meeting in Dallas on Wednesday. It includes sports teams alone and does not include stadiums or any other assets.
Longtime owner Jeffrey Lurie will retain majority control of the team, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations.
According to CNBC’s Official NFL Team Valuations in September, the Philadelphia Eagles were the ninth most valuable team at $7 billion. CNBC valuation is based on controlling stake.
The Eagles were No. 9 in the league in revenue last year, bringing in $669 million in 2023.
The latest sales illustrate the meteoric rise in sports team values, which are exceptionally strong for the NFL. Over the more than three decades Lurie has owned the Eagles, the team’s value has grown 13.2% annually, outperforming the S&P 500, which has grown 8.9% annually.
According to sources, Eagle has received strong interest in the sale from families, individuals and private equity firms.
Eagle’s new minority owners include Susan Kim, chairman of the board of Amcor Technologies, a commodity packaging company. Zack Peskowitz and Olivia Peskowitz Suter will also join the investment team. They are the children of United Communications Group founder and former Atlanta Hawks co-owner Ed Pescovitz.
Lurie has owned the Eagles since 1994, when he took out a loan to buy the team for $185 million.
Under Lurie’s ownership, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl title in 2018 in addition to several conference championships throughout his tenure. The Birds are currently in first place in the NFC East with an 11-2 record.
Lurie first announced the potential sale of a minority stake in the team in June after the league voted to approve the private equity investment.
Other NFL deals
In addition to the Eagles, NFL owners on Wednesday approved new minority stakes in the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders, in the first transactions since the NFL voted to allow private equity investment this summer.
The Dolphins have approved the sale of a 10% stake to Ares Management and a 3% stake to Brooklyn Nets owners Joe Tsai and Oliver Weisberg, as previously reported by CNBC. In addition to the team, those transactions include Hard Rock Stadium, the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix and continued investment in South Florida. The transaction marks the Ares’ entry into NFL ownership The group’s other sporting assets include Inter Miami CF, McLaren Racing and Atlético de Madrid.
Meanwhile, Terry and Kim Pegula, majority owners of the Buffalo Bills, welcomed 10 new minority owners, including private equity firm Arctos; Rob Palumbo, Co-Managing Partner of Accel-KKR; and former NBA players Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, among others.
“It has been an incredible journey to join such an impressive and diverse group of limited partners with a reputable private equity partner in Arctos that has an extensive track record of success with professional sports franchises,” Terry Pegula said in a statement.
NFL owners also approved Mark Davis’ sale of 15% of the Las Vegas Raiders to Silver Lake co-CEO and Endeavor board chairman Egon Durban and Discovery Land Co. founder and chairman Michael Meldman, according to the New York Times. The transaction comes after Davis sold about 10.5% of the shares to Tom Brady and Tom Wagner, co-founders of Knighthead Capital Management, in October.
— CNBC’s Michael Ojanian contributed to this report.
Correction: The Eagles deal is for 8% of the team. A previous version made percentage mistakes.
