NBA commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t have plan to let sovereign wealth funds fully own a team
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund invested 5% into the parent company of the Washington Wizards earlier this summer
Investments from sovereign wealth funds have been a growing trend throughout the sports world in recent years. Just look at what’s happening with golf.
While those investments are now allowed in the league, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Monday that there is no pathway “in the foreseeable future” for such a fund to take controlling ownership of a franchise.
"I don't want to say what could ever happen, but there's no contemplation right now," Silver said in Las Vegas at the Associated Press Sports Editors convention, via ESPN. "I mean, it's very important to us, putting aside sovereign wealth funds that individuals are in a position to control our teams, be responsible to the fans, be responsible to their partners and to the players.
"It's very important to us that there be a person [in charge], and this is independent of sovereign wealth funds. I think that in terms of the connection with the community, the connection with the players and their other partners in the league."
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, sovereign wealth funds can now invest into NBA teams, though they can only have a passive investment of up to 5%. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund did just that last month, purchasing a 5% stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment — which owns the Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, NHL’s Washington Capitals and more. The deal now values the group at about $4.05 billion, with more than half of that belonging to the Wizards.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has made the biggest investments in sports in recent years. The PIF funded LIV Golf and launched a battle with the PGA Tour for the sport before suddenly partnering with the Tour last month to try to launch a single entity. There’s still plenty of issues in golf to be figured out before that happens — a pair of Tour officials testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee about the deal on Tuesday — but the PIF is reportedly planning to invest billions in the new venture.
That, along with its investments in Formula 1, the English Premier League and elsewhere, is the latest example of what many see as “sportswashing” — or an attempt to cover up alleged human rights abuses, crimes and more.
Why did the NBA open up to sovereign wealth funds?
The answer, according to Silver, is actually pretty simple.
NBA team valuations have skyrocketed over the last several decades. The Golden State Warriors were valued at about $7 billion in Forbes’ last valuation, the highest in the league. The Phoenix Suns and Mercury sold for a record $4 billion in February, and Michael Jordan’s share of the Hornets sold for about $3 billion last month.
To put it plainly, the league is running out of individuals wealthy enough to keep investing.
"I think a bubble would be indicative of sort of irrational valuations," Silver said, via ESPN. "I think if you look at the revenues, at least in the case of the NBA being generated by the league, the opportunity for growth, the global market that we're addressing here, and maybe there's certain unique aspects to the NBA because of how global our league is.
"I don't think there's anything irrational at all. In part, the reason why we've opened up investment opportunities to private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, is because we're running out of individuals, frankly, who are in a position to write those kinds of checks, and especially when you're not going to be the control owner of the team."
And with the way the league is growing, Silver only sees those investments as a good thing.
"To me, I think the investment community is just following that trend and saying this is a true growth opportunity,” Silver said, via ESPN. "So I continue to be, as you might expect, very bullish on the opportunity here. But again, I think if you look at the fundamentals of our sport, if you look at the amount of interests from all these different platforms in carrying live sports programming ... I think it's why we're seeing a very positive outlook and why, at the end of the day, those values are representative of the marketplace."
