The NFL’s owners typically meet four times per year. Sometimes, they have special meetings.
The issue of private equity has suddenly become sufficiently special.
Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal reports that Commissioner Roger Goodell has asked the 32 owners to set aside Tuesday, August 27 for a potential league meeting on the long-expected rule to allow teams to sell a portion of the franchise to private-equity funds.
The meeting will happen if the committee formed to address the issue finishes its policy. For now, the Commissioner wants the owners to be ready to meet.
It’s expected that teams would be allowed to sell up to 10 percent to a private-equity fund. Plenty of other details need to be worked out, including the approved funds and whether funds would be allowed to acquire equity in multiple teams.
Last month, Goodell didn’t rule out the possibility of the 10-percent ceiling potentially moving higher.
The owners currently are due to meet in October, roughly six weeks after the planned special meeting. So why the rush?
It would be foolish to not at least consider the possibility that a sense of urgency has been created by a certain pending liability of $14.1 billion from the Sunday Ticket case, which if upheld would cost each team roughly $440 million each. For the owners who can’t just snap their fingers and manifest the money, selling a slice of the team could be the key to raising the cash.
And even though the reckoning could be several years away, it makes sense to start the rainy-day fund for the potentially coming monsoon.