Pat Surtain II of the Denver Broncos celebrates an interception against the Los Angeles Chargers at … [+]
Rob Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, will win the bidding for the Denver Broncos at about $4.5 billion, several sports bankers told Forbes. Walton’s ownership team also includes his daughter Carrie and her husband, Greg Penner. The winning bid is expected to be announced as early as this month.
It’s not a vanity play for the 77-year-old Walton, who Forbes estimates is worth $59.1 billion, but rather a purchase that could place the team in his family’s hands for generations. His fortune would give the Broncos an advantage in signing expensive players because the NFL requires teams to put the money owed to guaranteed contracts in escrow. Current NFL teams owned by the same family for generations often don’t have that type of money lying around because so many family members feed off the team.
The Broncos, who last won the Super Bowl in 2016 with quarterback Peyton Manning, are being auctioned by the Pat Bowlen Trust. In August, Forbes valued the team at $3.75 billion, good for tenth in the league.
Since then, the National Football League has been doing better than ever. It enjoyed an increase in sponsorship revenue and is reportedly looking to launch its own streaming service. The league also dominated TV ratings last year, with the four top individual shows and its highest viewership since 2015. Outside of football, the league expanded its balance sheet by investing another $320 million in sports clothing and equipment retailer Fanatics in April.
The other groups reportedly still in the hunt for the Broncos are led by billionaire Apollo Global Management cofounder Josh Harris; Jose E. Feliciano, one of the founders of Clearlake Capital; and billionaire mortgage mogul Mat Ishbia. None of the other groups come close to Walton’s wealth. As one banker put it, the Broncos are Walton’s if he wants them.
At $4.5 billion, the Broncos sale would be the most expensive for a sports team in history, easily topping the $3.2 billion paid for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets in 2019. At an estimated nine times 2021 revenue, the enterprise value/revenue multiple would also be the third-richest for any team, behind only the Nets’ 10.5 and the Los Angeles Clippers’ 13.7 when former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer paid $2 billion for the NBA team in 2014.
Last month, the English Premier League’s Chelsea FC sold for $3.09 billion (using the May 9 exchange rate of £1 to $1.236).
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/06/06/rob-waltons-45-billion-bid-will-be-enough-to-buy-the-broncos—and-the-most-ever-spent-for-a-team/