Ben Gilbert

So you're putting up 800 million as a private equity firm.

Let's say that goes up 30% before you exit your position.

That's a gain of $240 million.

I have no idea what the SPF is or the carry.

Let's assume it's 10%.

I don't know if that's conservative or not, but it's less than 20%.

That 10% would be $24 million that the rest of the owners just get for free as a little thank you for letting private equity participate in our league here.

Right.

So my last comment on valuations and how each of these teams are doing as businesses, give you a couple other data points here.

Forbes now estimates the Cowboys are worth $13 billion.

The Cowboys are the high watermark because the Cowboys have an exceptional amount of local revenue that they produce, as we mentioned earlier on the episode.

The estimated 2024 revenue of the Cowboys was $1.2 billion, while posting an operating income of $630 million.

But to my point on the disparity here between the most thriving team and the least thriving, sure, the Cowboys can spit off $630 million in profit.

The average team spits off $127 million in profit, and the least profitable team only generates $21 million in profit.

So a couple points here.

One, NFL teams are now just always reliably profitable businesses.

That's not true in most sports, and it wasn't true in the NFL's history.

But if you own an NFL team, you are going to get, I believe, get a dividend check every year since they're cash generative.

But two, this league first mentality is going to be really tested in the coming years with these enormously profitable teams at the top and these teams at the bottom.

I mean, $21 million, that really illustrates why a $24 million payday coming from private equity, every individual million that you stack on top of that 21 is very impactful to your profitability as a business overall.