For sales of sports teams year-to-year, it looks like business is booming. It also seems that every sale of a franchise marks another new record.
The most recent team that went up for sale, the NFL’s Washington Commanders, officially changed hands in July of 2023. The sale of one of the league’s most historic franchises, put the finishing touches on an overdue rebranding, topped by an even more necessary change of ownership.
As the money surrounding sports franchises continues to reach unfathomable levels, trending higher and higher into the billions as people (or groups of filthy, filthy rich people) buy up sports teams for record amounts, it’s only a matter of time before a new record is set for another sports franchise somewhere.
What are the most expensive sports team sales in history? Let’s rattle through them below — before another team hits the market and breaks the list!
13. Seattle Mariners, $1.4B, MLB, 2016
Sold a year before the Miami Marlins (which might’ve also made this list at $1.2 billion in 2017), the Mariners went for $1.4 billion in a sale to John Stanton in 2016.
The former owners, Nintendo of America, sold the team to a group of 17 minority owners, with Stanton being the leader and CEO of the club.
Formerly, he was a part of ownership or a board member for Microsoft, Costco, and Columbia Sportswear, as well as the founding company that went on to become T-Mobile USA, in case you’re wondering where Mr. Stanton amassed all his wealth.
12. Buffalo Bills, $1.4B, NFL, 2014
In what was a record purchase in 2014 for $1.4 billion, previously the most-ever for an NFL team, the couple of Kim and Terry Pegula put a lot into who many argue is the “only” NFL team in New York state (sorry, Giants and Jets). In addition to the Bills, the couple also owns the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.
With good investment and direction, the Bills have gone on to become one of the top clubs in the league, getting to the precipice of the Super Bowl behind quarterback Josh Allen but not quite able to break through yet. However, they also broke ground in the summer of 2023, on a brand-new multi-billion dollar stadium that’s projected to open in 2026.
11. Manchester United, $1.5B, English Premier League, 2005
The veteran of our list and the only one that goes beyond 2014, this one is a bit tricky (or should we say sticky).
ManU was sold, or rather taken over in the majority, in 2005 when Malcolm Glazer took on 98 percent of the club as the minority shareholders were squeezed out. He originally only had a little more than three percent of the club, upping that to 15 percent in 2003 and doubling that amount again in the next year. Then, Glazer took on another 28.7 percent stake to push him to 57 percent, allowing him to launch the takeover bid — which he did in quick succession and has since included more of the Glazer family.
We say tricky and sticky because fans of the club protested the sale and takeover at the time, and have continued to show their displeasure with the way the Glazers put the club in debt. They were also unhappy that the Glazers tried to move ManU into the proposed European Super League, a breakaway effort among the richest European clubs that fell apart.
10. Los Angeles Clippers, $2B, NBA, 2014
One of the most well-known sports team purchases in recent history, this was also a record purchase for an NBA squad back when the sale went down.
For those unfamiliar with the story of former owner Donald Sterling’s terrible, racist, and sexist behavior, his continued presence and meddling dragged “the other L.A. team” down to laughable levels year after year. Finally, in 2014, it came to light via recordings that all the rumors and innuendo were indeed true, and during the Clippers’ playoff run in 2014 led by Chris Paul and head coach Doc Rivers, the league forced Sterling to remove himself from the NBA and sell the team.
The often-described eccentric billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stepped in and happily plopped down an obscene amount of money for the team and instantly became, if not the face, a face of the franchise with his child-like antics and cheering courtside at games. He pledged to invest in the team and has done so, with a new arena for the Clippers on the way as well, which will only push the value of this team even higher.
9. Los Angeles Dodgers, $2.15B, MLB, 2012
Two years earlier, another L.A. team, the Dodgers of the MLB, sold for a (say it with me again) then-record amount of $2.15 billion in 2012.
The new buyers were an ownership group dubbed Guggenheim Baseball Management, led by Stan Kasten, but the most famous of the crew was someone with a small minority stake in the team but a very big personality — NBA legend Magic Johnson.
Johnson has been visible as a face of the franchise and valuable in helping lure other top talents — like Mookie Betts — to the club, culminating in a World Series win in 2020.
Things are going a bit better for the club now after the team needed to be sold because the former owners, the McCourts of Frank and Jamie, went through a bitter and messy divorce.
8. Houston Rockets, $2.2B, NBA, 2017
Tilman Fertitta had his sights set on buying Houston’s basketball team for more than 15 years.
He first tried to buy the team in 1993 but lost out to Leslie Alexander for $81 million.
No big deal. The restaurateur and casino businessman — whom you may have heard some controversial things from (but isn’t that the case with a lot of owners?) — Fertitta only had to wait 16 years and pay, oh, just a little more than that, as his purchase of the Rockets in 2017 set the NBA record at the time, only to be topped by Tsai’s purchase of the Nets only a year later.
7. Carolina Panthers, $2.275B, NFL, 2018
David Tepper went from one time, being a partial owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers to the full ownership status of another team in the NFL, the Carolina Panthers. That did set the record for an NFL team at the time, which we now know sets the course for the next sale to topple that record most of the time.
This is one of a few sales on the list that came by way of a not-so-straightforward situation of an owner who just wanted out or to make some more money. Former owner Jerry Richardson was forced to sell the Panthers after allegations of misconduct on several accounts.
6. New York Mets, $2.42B, MLB, 2020
Following the finish of the COVID-19 pandemic-delayed 2020 baseball season, American hedge fund manager Steve Cohen showed that the worldwide health crisis didn’t dampen his earnings at all. He certainly had enough in his bank account to follow through in buying the Mets. Cohen bought the club in November 2020, paying the most ever for an MLB squad.
It’s been great that the Mets have what seems to be a committed owner. But with all that money spent to acquire the team, along with additional millions upon millions spent on players, the team hasn’t seen much success on the baseball diamond, only making the playoffs once since Cohen became the owner.
5. Brooklyn Nets, $3.3B, NBA, 2019
The sale price of the Nets tends to fluctuate depending on how it’s reported and what method is used. In total, the sale price stands as the second highest ever for a sports team, but it wasn’t bought in full all at once.
Joe Tsai bought 49% of the Brooklyn basketball franchise for $1 billion in 2018 and took over the entirety of ownership from the former owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, by paying another $1.35 billion to give us a starting cost of $2.35 billion, which would still stand at number five on this list alone. Yet, Tsai also bought the Barclay’s Center, the home of the Nets, for nearly another billion, bringing the total to $3.3 billion.
Not all new owners need to take on the rights to the stadium or arena of the home team as well, but this unique deal allowed for that to happen as an entity of the team, so we’re keeping it here at No. 2 because it likely would be part of any deal if for some reason Tsai sold the Nets again.
4. Phoenix Suns, $4.0B, NBA, 2023
Mortgage executive Mat Ishbia became the majority owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns in 2023, after yet another instance of a wealthy man gone wrong. Prior to Ishbia taking the reins down in the Arizona desert, the then-previous owner, Robert Sarver, found himself in the middle of a huge ownership scandal that could only be described as “severely toxic”, to say the least.
The powers that be in the league, similar to what happened a little further out west with the Clippers, arranged for another franchise sale of one of its more popular teams. In came Ishbia who paid a record $4 billion to Sarver, for his current majority ownership.
3. Denver Broncos, $4.65B, NFL, 2022
The NFL’s Denver Broncos were sold for a record amount in June 2022, topping the richest sale around the world in the history of sports teams. It’s also one of the most diverse ownerships among all 32 teams in the league.
The Walton-Penner family group, led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, who is the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, purchased the Broncos for a reported $4.65 billion. The sale price soars past the previous record sale by a full billion dollars, topping the $3.3 billion the Brooklyn Nets were bought for by Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai in 2019.
2. Chelsea Football Club, $5.3B, EPL, 2022
English Premier League soccer club Chelsea F.C. was put up for sale in 2022 because of the status of the now-former owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. His sale of the club largely resulted from British Government sanctions in response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and its continuing occupation of parts of that country.
Chelsea FC was soon thereafter purchased by American businessman Todd Boehly for what was briefly the second-highest sum ever paid for a sports club, at that time. Boehly actually is part of another team on this list, as he also has an ownership stake in the Dodgers.
For comparison, after Chelsea and Manchester United, the next biggest sale of an EPL club was in 2018, when Arsenal was bought for $753 million. It’s doubtful we’ll see sales in the millions anymore.
1. Washington Commanders, $6.1B, NFL, 2023
As if problematic sports owners couldn’t be mentioned just one more time on this list, here we go. The Washington Commanders franchise was practically pushed into its sale but for all the right reasons. The former owner, Daniel Snyder, was the focal point of a wide-ranging scandal that involved several documented incidents of sexual harassment, bullying, and intimidation that had Snyder going nowhere but out the door.
Josh Harris, a managing partner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, led an ownership group that eventually stepped in to take over the Commanders. A record amount of $6 billion was paid for the team’s sale and as an added incentive perhaps, Magic Johnson, a familiar name not just on this list, but in successful sports ownership, is a part of Harris’ ownership group.
Sports surely involves some seriously silly money exchanging hands, something we regular fans can barely fathom, but as long as we fans continue to get as much of our favorite sports and teams as we can, it’s all good.