Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is considering selling a minority stake in the club, as Bloomberg’s Gillian Tan reported last month. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk makes plain that the size of the stake is uncertain, and that there will be no path to a controlling interest.
As such, it is eminently possible that the sale will not happen at all. The club will be valued at $7.5 billion in any transaction (an 11-times multiple of annual revenue), so it will be a pricey endeavor for any buyer, especially since their prospective purchase would not guarantee them a chance to acquire a more significant share.
After all, it appears that the plan is to keep controlling ownership of the Eagles within the Lurie family. Jeffrey Lurie’s son, Julian, participated in the NFL’s two-year program for prospective executives upon his graduation from Harvard, he took part in the Eagles’ head coaching interviews in 2021 — ultimately advising his father as the team transitioned from Doug Pederson to Nick Sirianni — and even spearheaded the interviews for the team’s analytics department. Julian Lurie, now 29, appears poised to someday succeed his 72-year-old father at the top of the franchise.
The NFL currently does not allow private equity or other institutional investment in its clubs, and while that has not yet prevented owners who wish to sell from finding deep-pocketed buyers, the skyrocketing value of NFL teams could soon necessitate a relaxation of the rule. As Brendan Coffey of Sportico.com writes, the league recently retained an investment bank, PJT Partners, to explore the possibility of private equity partnerships.
Naturally, Jeffrey Lurie’s efforts to sell a share of the Eagles would be aided by a revised private equity rule, and as of the time of Tan’s report, those efforts were still in their early stages. Lurie is working with BDT & MSD Partners, a private banking company, to locate potential buyers.
Lurie purchased the Eagles for $195MM in 1994. Under his stewardship, Philadelphia has appeared in three Super Bowls, winning one and dropping the two others by three points. Like many owners of major sports franchises, Lurie has sometimes been accused of meddling too much in matters of on-field personnel, to the point that some saw GM Howie Roseman as a mere conduit for Lurie’s wishes. Of course, Lurie’s push to keep QB Jalen Hurts as the unquestioned starter heading into the 2021 campaign — even when Roseman had doubts about the young passer’s ceiling — turned out to be the right call.
If so, I hope he develops potential new owners better than the Steelers have done. I believe Pitt has had both the–now majority– owners of the Browns and Panthers as minor owners previous to them buying franchises.
As an old fan of the Redskins; the Eagles were rivals, but Lurie has done a tremendous job w/ that team. Hat’s off to him and 3 SB trips.
How much is he willingly to give up and for how much? Yes, I can ask.
Lurie seems to be a pretty good owner, at least at the moment. As we know, time has the potential to change things, but he’s done a good job seemingly in his capacity. I would wonder why, if you’re set as the owner of a lucrative business that doesn’t really require much input or effort to generate profit, and whose value will only astronomically increase while also providing fame and potential accomplishment, would an owner consider selling stakes? Unless the owner is desperate for money-and a LOT of money at that-it seems like you’d rather just keep the whole thing, right?
I suppose that it’s the business oriented concept of wanting to continually operate at the highest profit potential, but we’ve also seen how teams can develop ownership struggles down the road as inheritance divides up the stakes further. And, as long as the list of resume oriented accolades as Julian Lurie seems to be, a 29 year old C.E.O. in any capacity will still have a lot to learn. Jeff Lurie of course will know that, and if he’s considering a sale to someone other than his son, adding a minority owner (or several) might just complicate the matter for his young successor after he takes over.
It’s a travesty that the NFL continues to be the great bastion of nepotism. All teams should be publicly owned like the Packers.
Rob McElhenney Tweeted Uh Mr Lurie Check your DMs pls. My guess he’s the one that will be the minority share owner.
Maybe he is being sued for having success and contrary opinions and Washington wants to jail him in order to silence him out of fear of what his investigations will bring to the status quo. It takes a lot of money when Washington sues you. Only bad things happen when you suddenly need this kind of money.