We should start calling NFL owners “the Billionaires Club,” because you have to be a billionaire to join the club now.
Just four years ago, the Walton-Penner group bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion. That now seems like a bargain.
Just three years ago, the ownership group led by Josh Harris bought the Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion.
And now a group led by 49ers minority owner Vinod Khosla has purchased the Seahawks for a staggering sum of $9.6 billion, a 50 percent increase.
He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm, although his wife Neeru will be the controlling owner and their son Neal will play a major role in running the team. Vinod was born in India and came to the United States at age 21 and got his MBA at Stanford.
To illustrate how values have skyrocketed, the late Paul Allen bought the team for $194 million in 1997. All the profits will go to charity, according to Allen’s will.
Now the question is how high franchise values will go from here.
Just a year ago, CNBC valued the Dallas Cowboys at $12.5 billion and 10 other teams valued at more than $8 billion. Those figures are now obsolete. The Seahawks deal will raise the value of all the teams.
Now the question is what the negotiations will be like when the NFL next negotiates with the players. With the teams worth so much, the players are likely to want a better deal because they don’t get a share when franchise values go up. The owners, of course, will want to hold the line or get an even better deal.
It could be a long, tough negotiation. In the NFL now, it’s all about the money.
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