Seattle Sounders Add Three Investors to Ownership Group
The Seattle Sounders have expanded their cap table with three new families investing in the MLS club: Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services; Rick Cantu, CEO and co-founder of Redapt; and Jay Stein, president of Sand Capital.
“These three are all very strategic, and I think they are layering on what is already a great collection of entertainment and technology leaders,” Hugh Weber, Sounders president of business operations, said in a phone interview.
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Selipsky has deep roots in the tech industry and in Seattle, where he was raised. AWS is the profit center of Amazon with $22.8 billion in operating income last year—the rest of the company lost money—on revenue of $80 billion. AWS has partnered with the NFL, NHL, PGA Tour, Formula 1 and Bundesliga to help engage their fans and transform their businesses. Weber calls him a “perfect fit” as someone who can provide insights on how the Sounders can “fuel their business.”
Cantu is a local Seattle entrepreneur whose business is focused on the solutions side of the technology sector. Stein owns stakes in MLB’s Colorado Rockies and the Premier League’s Leeds United.
In addition to his role at Sand Capital, Stein is president of the Scottsdale division of Sandor, a national real estate development firm. The Sounders are expected to open a new training facility and corporate offices in early 2024 but also have bigger plans for the 158-acre site south of Seattle with office space, retail, housing and an outdoor music venue.
“We want to be one of the most respected sports franchises in the world,” Weber said. “Competing from a commercial and content perspective with anybody in sports. That’s a different level of ambition than we’ve had.”
In February, Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer unveiled a six-year growth strategy for the franchise that included hiring Weber, who previously was president of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils.
The plan is focused on a handful of initiatives, like the training facility, Sounders FC’s 50th anniversary in 2024, hosting World Cup games in 2026 and exploring strategic acquisitions.
“We’re a club that has led the way in every league of which we’ve been a part and our goal is to continue to capture that spirit of innovation and drive to achieve,” Hanauer said in a statement detailing the investment.
The Sounders already have a deep bench of owners with ties to the sports, entertainment and technology industries, including Jody Allen, Drew Carey, Tod Leiweke, Ken Griffey Jr., Satya Nadella, Ciara and Macklemore.
The club did not release any financial details around the new investments.
The Sounders ranked fourth in Sportico’s 2022 MLS team valuations at $725 million and have consistently been one of the strongest franchises in the league. In 2022, average attendance ranked third at 33,607 fans per game and remains third this year behind Atlanta and Charlotte.
The new Sounders investors have joined MLS as the league experiences a surge of interest from Lionel Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami. Weber added: “It’s created a moment in time where we are looking inward at the entire business model to make sure we’re really positioning ourselves for what the next five years can look like which can be unbelievable.”
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