With the Bowlen family expected to sell the Denver Broncos next year at an asking price of around $4 billion that will almost certainly be met, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and entertainer/entrepreneur Jay-Z are among the notable names interested in purchasing the NFL franchise, according to Front Office Sports.
Previously interested in taking a 40% stake in the Washington Football Team, the world’s richest man has an estimated worth of more than $200 billion and remains interested in NFL ownership. Bezos, clearly, could afford to buy the team outright whereas Jay-Z, who is hip-hop’s first billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, would probably not have enough cash to be the controlling owner of the team as he’d need to personally purchase 30% of the franchise per NFL rules. With franchises potentially about to significantly increase in value due to an influx of cash from sports betting, there will likely be no shortage of suitors. But, Jay-Z certainly has some appeal as an owner despite not being able to purchase the team by himself the same way Bezos could.
“He could still be a key part of an ownership group, the public face and voice while the person with the money remains relatively anonymous,” according to ProFootballTalk. “That’s the role Jon Bon Jovi would have played in the group that tried to buy the Bills, for example.” (Bon Jovi is reportedly worth just north of $400 million.)
Regardless of whether a deal goes down involving Jay-Z and Bezos, the Amazon founder will be tied to the NFL for the foreseeable future due to Thursday Night Football moving to Prime exclusively next season for more than a decade as well as another potential deal.
Per outlets including CNBC, Amazon.com is in talks with the NFL about acquiring the rights to the league’s Sunday Ticket package and is the front-runner to take over the rights to show live, out-of-market games from DirecTV at the conclusion of its contract at the end of the 2022-23 season. The NFL is reportedly seeking between $2 billion and $2.5 billion per year for the package and would like to wrap up discussions by the end of February.
“Buying live sports rights also allows Amazon to expand its business while regulators crackdown on big technology acquisitions,” per CNBC. “Amazon has previously been able to grow into new businesses by acquiring companies Whole Foods, Ring and Zappos.”
DirecTV has owned Sunday Ticket for the past 27 years and has paid about $1.5 billion per year for the rights to the package for the past seven seasons.
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