NFL Team Values Are Soaring, and the Miami Dolphins Owner Wants to Cash in
If you’ve been looking to get into the sports ownership game, now might be your chance.
Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, is hoping to sell a stake in the NFL team, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The real-estate developer has seen how the valuation of sports teams has skyrocketed over the past few years, and he wants to cash in on the craze.
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“I’m looking at now to monetize a portion of it,” Ross said during the FII Priority event in Miami Beach. “I never dreamed we’d be so fast at the valuations that are out there today.”
The businessman bought 95 percent of the Dolphins back in 2009 for $1 billion. The team is just one part of his sports empire, which also includes Hard Rock Stadium and the F1 Miami Grand Prix. Reports from last year suggested Ross was looking to offload some of those investments, and Bloomberg reported in November that Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of Citadel, was interested in buying them.
“The community wants an owner who wants to win and will spend the resources to bring that,” Ross said on Friday.
If the developer does indeed go through with a sale, the price could smash that paid for the Washington Commanders last year, Bloomberg noted. Back then, a group of investors led by Josh Harris put down $6 billion for the D.C.-area team, making it the largest sports transaction ever at the time of the sale.
In response, Harris has faced criticism that he overpaid for the Commanders, a claim he addressed shortly before Ross made his own comments on Friday. “People will look back at the purchase of the Commanders and say, ‘Wow that was bargain,’” Harris said.
As of August, Forbes valued the Dolphins at $5.7 billion. Since the team’s founding in 1966, it has won two championships, both in the early 1970s. The Dolphins appeared in the NFL playoffs this year but hasn’t won a division championship since the 2008 season and a conference championship since the 1984 season. While Ross has poured money into the franchise, including $730 million to renovate Hard Rock Stadium and the surrounding area, his efforts haven’t been met with the hardware to match.
Ross knows that’s what the team and its fans want, and perhaps a new owner will be able to help them get there.
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