The Giants are looking to sell up to 10% of the team entering the franchise’s 101st season, the Sports Business Journal reported on Thursday evening. The team confirmed its intent to part with a minority share.
“The Mara and Tisch families have retained Moelis & Company to explore the potential sale of a minority, non-controlling stake in the New York Giants,” the club said in a statement. “There will be no further comment in regard to the process.”
The team will not sell a majority stake or cede control, which has rested with current President John Mara or his family since his grandfather, Tim Mara, founded the team in 1925.
Since 1991, the Tisch and Mara families have each owned 50% of the club, with a long list of individual family members holding small stakes. Since the passing of Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch in 2005, the team has been under the control of John Mara and Steve Tisch on behalf of their respective families.
The Giants franchise’s estimated value has ranged recently from $7.3 billion (Forbes) to $7.85 billion (CNBC). But a sale agreement is likely to come in higher.
The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, for example, were valued at ranges of $6.6 billion to $7 billion prior to December. But then the Birds sold 8% of their operation to two wealthy families in deals that valued the club at $8.1 billion and $8.3 billion, respectively.
The Giants have not provided a reason for their planned sale of a minority stake, but the NFL allowed private equity firms to buy up to 10% of teams under a new policy approved last August.
Two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning said on CNBC in January that he would be interested in pursuing the purchase of a minority stake in the Giants if the team would ever sell. So Manning will be one name to watch.
“I think it’s definitely something of interest and to look into,” Manning said last month. “You see more owners and teams interested in selling a minority stake… I know the power of the NFL & football… So I think it’d be an interesting opportunity to pursue.
“I think there’s probably only one team I’d be interested in pursuing, and it’s the one I played for 16 years, and it’s local, and makes the most sense,” Manning added. “But we just got to figure out if they would ever sell a little bit, or how that might happen for the Giants.”
Experts told Sports Business Journal that the Giants’ valuation could beat the Eagles’ numbers based on the size of the New York City market. But the price also could take a hit because the Giants share their market with the Jets and have been one of the worst teams in the NFL the last decade.
Also, a private equity firm is likely to be more cautious on price than the wealthy families who bought into the Eagles.
As of December, the NFL had approved three private equity firms to execute deals to acquire LP stakes in teams: Arctos Partners, Ares Management and Sixth Street. The Bills with Arctos and the Dolphins with Ares became the first two completed deals under that policy in December.