Washington Commanders managing accomplice Josh Harris (L) indicators a Commanders helmet whereas joined by Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (C) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (R) throughout a information convention on development of a brand new Commanders stadium in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
Over the final decade, non-public fairness investor Josh Harris has constructed one of many largest conglomerates in sports.
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which he co-founded with Blackstone govt David Blitzer in 2017, owns majority stakes throughout most of the most useful sports leagues on this planet. That contains stakes within the NFL’s Washington Commanders, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Premier League’s Crystal Palace. Earlier this 12 months, the group paid a $250 million franchise fee for a Philadelphia WNBA growth staff, anticipated to start play in 2030.
That has shortly made HBSE one of the invaluable sports possession teams on this planet. In truth, it ranked third in CNBC’s 2025 Most Valuable Sports Empires list at a price of $14.58 billion.
But these continued rising valuations elevate a query that harkens again to Harris’ time as a non-public fairness govt: Will HBSE, or different sports groups and huge possession conglomerates, begin to look towards going public?
“I don’t think so,” Harris instructed CNBC’s Scott Wapner at CNBC Sport and Boardroom’s Game Plan convention in Santa Monica, California, on Tuesday.
“When you think about IPOs and sports assets being public so far, they’ve been valued more highly as private assets,” Harris stated. “You haven’t seen the public valuations exceed the private valuations; therefore, people have tended to keep them private.”
Madison Square Garden’s sports assets, which embrace the New York Knicks and Rangers, are among the many solely U.S. sports groups to be owned by public firms.
Harris stated that should you have a look at these situations, “they generally trade below their intrinsic value, and they haven’t been embraced as much as we would like.”
One large consideration has saved most golf equipment off the public markets, Harris stated.
“People have tended to keep them private because ultimately as someone who is running a team, you want to be able to spend to win,” he stated. “You want to be able to take a very long-term perspective, and the public markets haven’t always embraced that.”
Harris notched an enormous win for the Commanders this 12 months, hanging a $3.7 billion deal to relocate the team from its present stadium in Landover, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., on the grounds of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.
“We’re not going to see the profits from that for years and years later,” he stated.
Most groups, particularly within the NFL, are intergenerational assets, and leagues have opened up new methods to elevate cash. Last 12 months the league voted to approve select private equity firms to take minority stakes in NFL franchises.
Harris stated that strategy has been constructive to date.
“Many of the funds are long-date funds, and they don’t have the typical things that private equity usually has, like control,” he stated. “That allows for owners such as myself to think very long term, … They know over the long run they’re betting on the city, the fan support and the league growth.”