EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The booming business of the NFL will now be open for more business.
League owners voted their carefully crafted approval of private equity in club ownership, putting in place a provisional new rule on Tuesday that lets certain firms buy up a stake of up to 10% in any of the 32 franchises that have soared in value over the past few decades like few other industries.
At a special meeting in Minnesota, nine days before the regular-season opener, owners for the first time opened their teams to institutional investment after previously prohibiting it. Other major American sports leagues allow as much as 30% holdings by private equity firms, and it's also a common practice in international soccer.
“It’s an access to capital that has been interest to us for a long time,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said after the session at the Omni Viking Lakes Hotel, which sits across from the headquarters of the Minnesota Vikings. “I think it’s an appropriate thing to give teams that liquidity to reinvest in the game and to their teams.”
The NFL with this vote permitted only four different groups to enter the arena: standalone firms Arctos Partners, Ares Management Corporation and Sixth Street, plus a consortium of five funds — Blackstone, Carlyle, CVC, Dynasty Equity and Ludis. The approved list could well be extended in the future, but these selections from the initial vetting process were made based on having the cash ready to go right away.
Ludis was founded by Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin, who spearheaded the collaboration as part of his effort to include minority race investors in NFL ownership positions.
“This is something that we’ve long fought for and tried to find ways to encourage that,” Goodell said.
In addition to the 10% private equity cap, there were other guardrails established. Multiple funds can account for the 10%, but there's a 3% minimum investment for each. Each purchase must be held for a minimum of six years. There's a maximum of six teams that each of the approved funds can invest in, and no more than 20% of each fund can go to one NFL club. No individual investor can own more than 7.5% of a fund. Also, league owners and their families are allowed to invest their own wealth in these funds, but only up to 3% of them.
The NFL let MLB, MLS and the NBA and NHL go ahead on this front, content to take notes in a cautious approach with a steadfast goal of preserving the parameters of the single-owner structure that has seen several of its prominent franchises stay in the same family for generations. Controlling owners must own at least 30% of the team, and no more than 25 owners can be part of an ownership group.
“We tried to talk to people who we think were in the know,” Goodell said. “We were patient on this.”
Since the study was initiated five years ago, the Denver Broncos ($4.65 billion) and Washington Commanders ($6.05 billion) have been sold in further illustration of the opportunity for current owners to liquify portions of their teams. These increasingly expensive and complicated transactions have also become more difficult for prospective owners without potential cash boosts from private equity firms.
The process accelerated a year ago, and a special committee on ownership policy was created including Kansas City's Clark Hunt, Denver's Greg Penner, New England's Robert Kraft, Cleveland's Jimmy Haslam and Atlanta's Arthur Blank.
“The support today in the room was very strong for this decision,” Penner said. “One thing that was really important was giving owners a different option for capital sources but at the same time maintaining how we operate.”
There's no reason for fans to be concerned that this new source of potential investors will affect any football operations, the league said.
“All it is is a silent position that would allow access to capital for those teams that wish to offer 10% of their team,” Goodell said. “They will not be in any kind of decision-making influence in any way.”
The stipulations also entitle the league to a portion of the proceeds from each sale, Goodell confirmed.
“The private equity firms that participated in this absolutely understood and expected that the NFL would have a collective participation in this,” he said.
Naturally, a league with a stated goal of soon reaching $25 billion in annual revenue is not going to make an unsound financial decision.
“I know this: This is good for anybody that's in love with the NFL, any part of it,” Dallas owner Jerry Jones said.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces a pick during the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, April 28, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Gregory Payan, File)
Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt speaks on behalf of the NFL's special committee on ownership policy in Eagan, Minn., Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Campbell)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Miami Beach residents and visitors can feel it coming in the air tonight — and the rest of the weekend — as “Miami Vice” cast and crew gather to celebrate the iconic television series' 40th anniversary.
The show premiered on NBC on Sept. 16, 1984, and ran for five seasons. The “cocaine cowboy”-era crime drama, featuring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as undercover cops, was revolutionary in its use of pop culture, style and music. And by filming the show primarily in South Florida, the series helped transform the image of Miami and Miami Beach in a way that would reverberate for decades.
Former cast members, including Edward James Olmos and Michael Madsen, met with fans Friday at the Royal Palm South Beach and were set to return Saturday. Also attending were Saundra Santiago, Olivia Brown, Bruce McGill, Joaquim De Almeida, Bill Smitrovich, Pepe Serna and Ismael East Carlo.
“It was not ‘Hill Street Blues.’ It was not ‘Police Story,’ ” Olmos said on Friday. “It was way different in artistic endeavor on all levels. The creativity, as far as music, writing, production value. The production value was so overwhelming. We spared nothing. I mean, these people were serious, and they spent a lot of time and money for each episode, and it shows.”
Olmos said that the show had a profound effect on introducing Miami to the world and creating an idealized version of South Beach that would later become a reality.
“When we were here, when we started the show in 1984, there was no South Beach,” Olmos said. “There was a South Beach, but it was dilapidated. The buildings were all literally falling into disrepair.”
Years before serious restoration efforts would transform South Beach into a center of fashion, music and tourism, Olmos said productions crews were painting the exteriors of the neighborhood's historic Art Deco buildings themselves to make them look good on camera.
“We would paint the facades and put out tables, and we did what now became the reality of South Beach,” Olmos said.
While most television production was still being done in Los Angeles or New York in the 1980s, Olmos doubts the show would have been as successful if they had tried to fake South Florida in California.
“They could have never shot this anywhere else in the world,” Olmos said. “Look at the show from the very first episode, and as it went on, the beauty of Miami is unprecedented.”
Premiering just a few years after the launch of MTV, “Miami Vice” embraced contemporary style and music. Besides Jan Hammer's original scoring, the producers regularly included songs from popular artists like Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Dire Straits and Foreigner.
Fred Lyle, an associate producer and music coordinator for “Miami Vice,” said the importance of music was evident from the first episode, as “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins plays while Johnson and Thomas cruise the streets of Miami in their Ferrari convertible.
“And that’s when ‘Miami Vice’ became different musically than anything else,” Lyle said. “Music was going over this scene, that scene. One song was helping to stitch the fabric of the narrative together.”
Aside from the show's style, the stories and characters also had substance. Veteran television actor Bruce McGill has played countless cops, coaches and other authority figures over several decades, but he said his guest role as a burnt-out former detective in the second season of “Miami Vice” stands out compared to the straight-laced characters that comprise most of his career.
“It was a very good part that they allowed me to make better, to enhance, to ham it up a little,” McGill said. “And it was very satisfying.”
"Miami Vice" fan Matt Lechliter, 39, traveled all the way to Miami Beach from Oxnard, California, to celebrate the show's anniversary.
“I wasn't alive when it premiered, but it's a part of me,” Lechliter said.
Lechliter said he remembers watching the later seasons and reruns with his parents as a child but really became a fan when he rediscovered the show about five years ago.
“I binge-watched it," Lechliter said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this really is amazing.’ When I heard about this event, I said, ‘I’ve gotta go.' ”
The anniversary celebration will continue through the weekend with career discussions, as well as bus and walking tours of filming locations.
The Miami Vice Museum is open to the public from Friday to Sunday, featuring a wide range of items never before displayed together since the show’s conclusion in 1989. The exhibit is being hosted at the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum.
And to kick off the celebration on Thursday, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner met with cast and crew at the Avalon Hotel in South Beach to present a proclamation declaring Sept. 16, 2024, as “Miami Vice Day.”
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." (AP Photo/David Fischer)
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." Actor Edward James Olmos, who played Lt. Martin Castillo, takes a photo with a fan. (AP Photo/David Fischer)
