Michael Jordan‘s sale of a majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets earlier this year meant there were no longer any Black majority owners of NBA teams. There are still 12 Black owners with minority stakes in teams. But this begs the question who will be the league’s next Black majority owner?
First, let’s name the existing Black owners with minority shares.
Dr. Valerie Daniels-Carter, President and CEO of V&J Foods (Milwaukee Bucks), NFL All-Pro Myles Garrett (Cleveland Cavaliers), businessman Damian Mills (Hornets), actor Jada Pinkett Smith (Philadelphia 76ers), rapper J. Cole (Hornets), basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade (Utah Jazz), entertainer Usher (Cleveland Cavaliers), basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson (San Antonio Spurs), basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill (Atlanta Hawks), actor Will Smith (Philadelphia 76ers), entrepreneur Sheila Johnson (Washington Wizards), and Jordan.
There’s Levels To This
Ten of the 12 on this list are very rich. Multi-millionaires. Even in that group there’s levels, with Daniels-Carter having an alleged net worth of $10 million and Will Smith a reported net worth of $350 million.
Johnson and Jordan are on another level. Wealthy. Johnson’s net worth is a reported $840 million, and Jordan’s is $3 billion buoyed by the majority stake sale.
Let’s be clear. None of these 12 people is worried about paying their electricity bill. But these distinctions are important.
If you want to own an NBA franchise you need serious dollars. The NBA is moving away from consortium groups as owners. They want one, at most two people, as the principal owners. This also prevents issues with decision making, etc. These franchises are multi-billion dollar businesses.
Let’s assume none of the existing 30 franchises are up for sale at the moment. If you wan’t in this exclusive club, the league’s pending expansion is your way in.
Commissioner Adam Silver has gone on record saying that once the league’s next broadcast rights deal is made, he will turn his attention to expansion. The two cities believed to be in line get teams will be Las Vegas and Seattle.
According to reports, the NBA will be looking for $4 billion each as the expansion fee for the new franchises. That’s a lot of cash. A lot of these wealthy people are “cash poor” or not liquid. Which means they’ll have to borrow a portion of that fee. The league will have strict rules about how much it will allow a new owner to be leveraged to buy a team.
Which means the next owner or ownership group will need very deep pockets. There just aren’t that many people with that kind of money who don’t already own a sports franchise and/or want to.
NBA Wants A Deep Pocketed Owner
Add onto the expansion fee the cost of an entertainment complex, arena, hotels and restaurants and this becomes limited to a very few. A local report in Las Vegas has an ownership group rumored to have $10 billion in budgeting for an entertainment complex and basketball arena.
A quick look at the Forbes top 10 wealthiest people in the world, and the only person who would likely want to own an NBA team is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($114 billion). But he’s been rumored to want an NFL franchise for a while now and might be in line to buy the Seattle Seahawks from Jody Allen who also owns the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, courtesy of her late brother Paul Allen.
As you scan down that list there are people who already own teams or have never been linked to or made any public interest in NBA ownership.
One name that comes up, as it relates to the potential Las Vegas franchise, is LeBron James. The game’s greatest player has made no secret that he wants to own an NBA team and he wants the team in Vegas.
Bron is a wealthy man, with a reported net worth of $1 billion, but he’s going to need another heavyweight with him or Silver (along with the other owners) will have to make some concessions on their requirements to let him in.
It’s possible they do. It would be good PR for the league if Bron owns a franchise at some point. His ownership of a team, depending on when that happens, could drive revenues in ways Jordan couldn’t with the Hornets.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund, aka the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, has total assets of $776 billion. These are the kind of pockets that make Silver and his 30 bosses excited. They would have no problem with an expansion fee, infrastructure builds etc. It’s the sixth-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
The PIF owns professional golf, four domestic soccer teams, has interests in boxing, horse racing and Formula One racing. Owning an American sports franchise seems like a logical next step if you’ve been paying attention.
If I were a betting man, my money would be on the Saudis being one of the next majority owners of an NBA team. Will Bron ever own a franchise? Time will tell.
