{"id":2022836,"date":"2026-07-02T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2022836"},"modified":"2026-07-02T09:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T06:30:14","slug":"travis-kelce-and-other-nfl-nba-stars-keep-investing-in-teams-will-mlb-players-follow-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2022836","title":{"rendered":"Travis Kelce and other NFL, NBA stars keep investing in teams: Will MLB players follow suit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Travis Kelce is a three-time Super Bowl champion and the soon-to-be husband of the planet\u2019s preeminent pop star, Taylor Swift. He\u2019s a record-setting NFL tight end and a podcast host regularly hounded by paparazzi. Last month, however, Kelce was back home in Northeast Ohio to celebrate his latest title: minority stakeholder in the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a logical union, given Kelce hails from Cleveland Heights, about seven miles from the ballpark he frequented as a kid. He would ride the rapid transit downtown, pass through the turnstiles and keep score from his seat.<\/p>\n

This sort of cross-sport entanglement \u2014 part player, part owner \u2014 has become increasingly common in recent years, and MLB clubs have embraced the trend. Kelce\u2019s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, owns a stake in the Kansas City Royals. In the NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a minority investor in the Milwaukee Brewers, Cade Cunningham bought into his hometown Texas Rangers, and LeBron James has a stake in the Boston Red Sox through his investment in Fenway Sports Group.<\/p>\n

Yet, as active NFL and NBA stars scoop up equity in MLB franchises, the reverse arrangement \u2014 baseball\u2019s biggest names making mid-career forays into ownership in Big Four leagues \u2014 has failed to materialize.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Cunningham has a stake in MLB\u2019s Rangers, but New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge, a future Hall of Famer with $400 million in guaranteed salary, doesn\u2019t own a piece of the NHL\u2019s Rangers. MLB\u2019s first $500 million man, Mike Trout, is a Philadelphia Eagles fanatic but not a shareholder. Instead, his money helped sculpt a golf course in his hometown.<\/p>\n

Mookie Betts owns a team \u2026 in the World Bowling League.<\/p>\n

Betts, the superstar shortstop of the back-to-back-champion Los Angeles Dodgers, is supportive of high-profile athletes entering MLB ownership circles. \u201cIt\u2019s good to kind of keep it in the family,\u201d he said, and it sends a positive signal about the sport\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

Why haven\u2019t baseball players followed suit?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be really baseball famous,\u201d Betts said, \u201cbut you just are never really going to pull the same weight as a guy that plays football or basketball. I mean, it\u2019s just a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For active athletes, limited partnership in pro sports franchises<\/a> is a multi-faceted pursuit: an investment-portfolio diversifier, a potential pathway to principal ownership after their playing days, and a trophy asset. With club valuations climbing, eyeing the standings can be an even greater thrill ride than the stock market. But there is this: You have to be really, really rich.<\/p>\n

The Athletic<\/em> surveyed a handful of well-compensated MLB stars in recent weeks about their interest in pro sports ownership. Presented with that premise, Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, a former MVP who has made nearly $200 million in salary, deadpanned: \u201cI don\u2019t think I can afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n If Harper were approached about buying into a team in another league, he\u2019d listen: \u2018I\u2019d love to do it here (in Philadelphia).\u2019 (Isaiah Vazquez \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bryce Harper can. By the end of his current contract<\/a> \u2014 a 13-year, $330 million pact that was once the largest deal in baseball history \u2014 Harper will be among the 10 highest-paid MLB players of all time, according to Spotrac.<\/p>\n

Harper would like to own part of an MLB franchise one day and run its baseball operations, like the setups Derek Jeter had with the Miami Marlins and Buster Posey now holds with the San Francisco Giants. In fact, Harper has already picked a manager: his Philadelphia Phillies teammate Kyle Schwarber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was messing with him about that,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Dude, you\u2019re going to be the best manager. If I ever own a team, you\u2019re going to manage my team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While Schwarber gives Harper grief for his grandiose plans, the idea of owning a team is a common conversation in clubhouses around the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs athletes, a lot of us wonder what it would be like,\u201d said retired six-time All-Star Jos\u00e9 Bautista, who is now principal owner of Las Vegas Lights FC, a franchise in the second tier of U.S. soccer leagues. It\u2019s a particularly thorny topic for MLB players to discuss publicly at the moment, as the league and players\u2019 union are locked in a contentious labor battle.<\/p>\n

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One All-Star, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject candidly, shrugged off Kelce\u2019s investment as primarily a public-relations play \u2014 one benefitting both the global NFL star and MLB\u2019s ownership class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that would appeal to me is if I was worth $7 billion and I was actually in the market for a team,\u201d the player said. \u201cYou want tickets? Social-media following? I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t see any positives of, like, owning a half of a percentage and throwing out the first pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment, however, is hardly universal among players.<\/p>\n

Several active MLB players have shares in non-Big Four leagues. Soccer has been a popular pathway for them to test their business savvy. Manny Machado is a founding partner of the NWSL franchise San Diego FC. Justin Verlander and his wife, Kate Upton, are investors in two clubs, Colombian squad Inter Bogota and Mexico\u2019s Club Necaxa. Matt Chapman owns a tiny sliver<\/a> of the English Premier League side Leeds United.<\/p>\n

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Machado, who grew up a Lionel Messi fan in metro Miami, began seriously pursuing investment opportunities in soccer around the time he inked a 10-year, $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres in February 2019 \u2014 the largest contract in American sports history until Harper signed a week later. San Diego was awarded an NWSL expansion franchise in 2023. It was a perfect fit, Machado said, to help fund an enterprise that would enrich the community in his new home city.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to put your money into things that matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because the MLB and NWSL seasons run simultaneously, Machado attends some San Diego FC games with his family but is more heavily involved in the offseason. From the outset, he told club leadership that baseball was his top priority, yet he\u2019d help whenever possible with promotion and lending insight from his vantage point as both athlete and investor. Machado, 35, said he hopes to play a larger role once his MLB career winds down.<\/p>\n

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The clock, the tick-tock reminder of both an athlete\u2019s dwindling supply of free time and the urgency of a closing career window, is a factor driving some to wait for retirement to buy equity in pro sports franchises. They\u2019d prefer involvement over passive investment. Retired athletes investing in clubs is not a new phenomenon: from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan, Tom Brady to David Beckham, Dwyane Wade to Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Nolan Ryan to Alex Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

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Over the years, there were occasional examples of athletes owning stakes in teams before their playing careers ended \u2014 Serena and Venus Williams (Miami Dolphins), Aaron Rodgers (Milwaukee Bucks), Lewis Hamilton (Denver Broncos), and Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Jordan (Washington Wizards) before their respective comebacks \u2014 but never at the current rate.<\/p>\n

If Harper were approached about buying into a team in another league, he\u2019d listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019d love to do it here (in Philadelphia).\u201d<\/p>\n

The dream he can envision more clearly, though, is one in which he remains in baseball: taking on new challenges within an organization, calling the shots from the big office at the end of the hall. Ownership appeals to Harper both as a sound investment and a way to quench his competitive thirst after hanging up his spikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome guys kind of spiral,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThey\u2019re like, What am I going to do with my life<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

He thinks about different hats he could wear, like coaching college baseball \u2014 a level of the sport he relishes for its rawness and unbridled fun. Buying into an MLB club and running its baseball operations would be another hat to try on. It would also represent an asset he could potentially pass down to his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play for 20 years would be awesome,\u201d Harper said. \u201cBut you can be an owner for 60-plus years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Throughout his evolution<\/a> from Rule 5 cast-off to the bat-flipping playoff hero dubbed \u201cJoey Bats,\u201d Bautista wanted to leave a legacy off the field, too.<\/p>\n

His mother, Sandra, was an accountant, and conversations he overheard as a kid piqued his interest in finance. While emerging as one of MLB\u2019s most feared sluggers, Bautista got a business degree from the University of South Florida. He peppered his teams\u2019 general managers and business and marketing executives with questions to gain a grasp of how organizations function. He invested in Marucci, the producer of the bats he famously flung.<\/p>\n

Bautista said he had a few dozen opportunities to invest in sports franchises during his playing career, though rarely was it an ownership group contacting him directly \u2014 think of it more as an opportunity getting passed around the investing community. None felt like the right fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I was going to be 0.00001 percent owner,\u201d Bautista said. \u201cSometimes they just needed money. Sometimes they didn\u2019t want opinion, feedback or questions. There\u2019s always a different reason why.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n \u2018It\u2019s a challenging and exciting world to navigate,\u2019 Jos\u00e9 Bautista said of owning a sports franchise. (Courtesy of Las Vegas Lights FC)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bautista was searching for a long-term project. Even if he wasn\u2019t a club\u2019s control person<\/a>, he wanted access to the rooms where decisions were made. After retiring in 2023 and expanding his business portfolio<\/a> \u2014 a training center, a coffee company, a financial advisory firm \u2014 Bautista began circling the United Soccer League. He studied the league\u2019s growth and potential future trajectory. Then a friend introduced him to the then-owner of the Las Vegas franchise, who was looking to sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I knew enough to be dangerous,\u201d Bautista said. \u201cI knew the right questions to ask. I could put a team together, build a staff and try to build a culture. So, I rolled the dice and got the deal done in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the active athlete interested in buying a small percentage of a pro sports franchise, Bautista preaches patience \u2014 both with the acquisition process and the return on investment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf they just want to have the allure of a trophy asset and a conversation piece, those are not the right reasons to get involved,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to want to affect the outcome of your investment by providing value with your involvement, attaching your name to it and doing whatever it takes to grow the team. If you do that, everybody benefits, not just you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, there are more than 2,000 partners across the Big Four leagues, and not every investor needs to be involved. Passive investors have a good time, too.<\/p>\n

Chapman played soccer as a kid but only casually followed the sport \u2014 \u201cMe calling it soccer shows I\u2019m not the biggest fan,\u201d he said \u2014 before attending a Chelsea-Arsenal match opened his eyes to the Premier League.<\/p>\n

When 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers, was preparing a bid for Leeds United in 2023, Chapman\u2019s team of financial advisors asked if he wanted in. Chapman was oblivious to most details of the club sale, yet trusted the expertise of his advisors and \u201cknew it was something that could be a win-win for everybody,\u201d he said. Though he\u2019s eight hours behind when home in San Francisco, Chapman catches as many early-morning Leeds matches as he can. It beats tracking the S&P.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it isn\u2019t as much about the money,\u201d Chapman said, \u201cas it is about being able to have a team that you feel like you not only root for, but are a little bit of a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as franchise sale prices soar, there are more people than ever looking to become limited partners, and more opportunities awaiting them. Most leagues now allow private-equity firms to buy into teams, opening another avenue to athletes, celebrities and other high-net-worth individuals to invest in sports clubs without purchasing a minority stake.<\/p>\n

Michael Rapkoch, a franchise valuations expert and president of Sports Value Consulting, cautions new investors to understand what they are bound to by their operating agreement. Few limited partners cash a yearly check from the club. Most invest even more each year in capital calls so as not to risk diluting their equity interest. Tread carefully, and it should pay dividends one day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe market can go down, but the value of a team is not going to go down,\u201d Rapkoch said. \u201cThe values of teams didn\u2019t go down during COVID. In 20 years, the Cleveland Guardians will be there. I don\u2019t know if some companies I\u2019m investing in in the market will be here in 20 years. Think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When Kelce arrived for his coronation at Progressive Field last month, fans lined up outside the players\u2019 parking lot and reporters captured grainy video of the new owner of a fraction of the Guardians franchise.<\/p>\n

David Blitzer could have danced past and no one would have noticed.<\/p>\n

Blitzer, a private-equity magnate with an estimated $4 billion net worth<\/a>, can assume majority ownership of the Guardians as soon as late next year<\/a>. He helped negotiate a new contract for the face of the franchise, Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez. He celebrated postseason clinches with owner Paul Dolan and club bigwigs. He has surveyed the land surrounding the stadium for potential investment opportunities. He also spearheaded the addition of Kelce to the bankroll.<\/p>\n

Publicly, however, Blitzer has been a ghost.<\/p>\n

He has not spoken to reporters since buying an initial stake in the Guardians in 2022. He didn\u2019t attend the news conference announcing Ram\u00edrez\u2019s new contract. He hasn\u2019t thrown a first pitch. The Guardians speak about Blitzer as some wealthy distant relative who cuts a check on birthdays and holidays.<\/p>\n

So, when a big leaguer grouses that Kelce\u2019s share is a PR play, there\u2019s some truth to it. For Kelce, who has invested in a Formula 1 team, an amusement park company and a beer brand, among other ventures, the partnership further binds him to Cleveland. Blitzer has no ties to the area.<\/p>\n

The Guardians planned to parade Kelce around Progressive Field on June 14, before rain spoiled the festivities. He would have tossed a first pitch and visited the home clubhouse and dugout. Instead, he signed autographs for a few fans outside the stadium. But the gates never opened. The game was postponed to September, and, by then, Kelce will be busy with his day job in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

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If nothing else, having Kelce as a public face will be good for the brand \u2014 and that\u2019s no small consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brand can help you withstand the losses or first-round exits in the playoffs,\u201d Rapkoch said.<\/p>\n

But buying such a stake is far more than just<\/em> PR.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re writing a check now to get involved that\u2019s much, much larger than it would have been 30 years ago,\u201d said Rob Tilliss, who founded the sports investment bank Inner Circle Sports and has brokered numerous franchise sales. \u201cSo, if you\u2019re not thinking about this as an investment, then you\u2019re not thinking about this correctly. When you write that large a check, even for a Kelce that\u2019s a real investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The size of that check is unclear. The terms of Kelce\u2019s minority share have not been disclosed. But say Johnny Quarterback or Bobby Ballplayer wanted to buy a 1 percent stake in a franchise valued at $2 billion. They\u2019d sign the papers and wire $20 million to the general partner \u2026 right?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to the negotiation.<\/p>\n

The valuation would come down slightly depending upon two factors: the club\u2019s existing debt and the discount minority owners receive because they won\u2019t have control, Rapkoch explained. Limited partners often structure payment over a few years. Some larger limited partners finance the sale with banks that lend against the value of the interest, Tilliss said. But, by and large, the funds can\u2019t be borrowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo debt,\u201d Rapkoch said. \u201cIt\u2019s all cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another reason more athletes-turned-owners are getting into MLB: its (relative) affordability. The Guardians are valued at about $1.7 billion, according to Forbes. The city\u2019s football outfit, the Browns, who have amassed the worst record in the NFL, by far, since their return to the league in 1999, were valued at nearly four times that amount last summer.<\/p>\n

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MLB\u2019s average franchise valuation<\/a> is $2.91 billion, according to Forbes, ahead of the NHL ($2.2 billion) but far outpaced by both the NBA ($5.36 billion) and NFL ($7.11 billion) averages. NBA and NFL franchise values benefit from massive media-rights deals and the reality that they, unlike MLB, are salary-cap leagues, which MLB owners argue is what is holding down their valuations. A 1 percent stake \u2014 the lower limit most major leagues have on minority shares \u2014 in a typical NBA and NFL franchise could be in the range of $50 to $75 million. Few players have that type of spare change.<\/p>\n

Most surveyed for this story had only hypotheses as to why MLB players haven\u2019t pulled a Kelce and entered ownership in another Big Four league while still playing. \u201cI\u2019m not really sure,\u201d Machado said. Betts pointed out baseball\u2019s grueling schedule affords players precious little time to craft big plans. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole wondered aloud whether baseball players are wealthy enough to afford a meaningful stake in a franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to complain if it ends up that way,\u201d Goldschmidt said, \u201cbut I have no idea what that would entail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inadvertently, almost all touched on perhaps the most compelling point: Baseball players tend to like baseball. And when they think about owning a team, they think about the league they know best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to go to the NFL and try to own a team and try to run the business on the field like Jerry Jones,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI can\u2019t do that, I don\u2019t know anything about football.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Dodgers star Mookie Betts in action at his charity bowling event in Los Angeles in 2024. (Mat Hayward \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Betts is a former MVP and four-time World Series champion whose current contract averages more than $30 million in salary per season. His sports investments run the gamut from a startup bowling league to an indoor batting cage experience<\/a> he compares to \u201ca Topgolf for baseball.\u201d At 33, he\u2019s cognizant his career, like all of them, has an expiration date, and he looks at investments as a bridge to life after baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the guy that (realizes) you\u2019re done playing, then tries to figure out what\u2019s next,\u201d Betts said. \u201cIt\u2019s really kind of too late by then. So, if I have to do a lot now, I\u2019ll be a little tired, but at least when I\u2019m done playing I\u2019ll have at least a couple stepping stones for me to kind of walk into.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To this point, Betts has barely thought about pursuing ownership in a Big Four league. If the right opportunity came along, he might be interested, he said. But only once he\u2019s done playing.<\/p>\n

In retirement, Bautista could have heaped his savings into the stock market and gone golfing. Instead, as he drives his four daughters to volleyball games around Tampa, Bautista is taking business calls and sweating the small stuff for his soccer team. It\u2019s been an uphill climb for Las Vegas FC. The club sits toward the bottom of the USL Championship table for the second consecutive season, an uncomfortable spot in a league that will adopt a promotion-relegation system<\/a> in 2028. But Bautista wanted a project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenging and exciting world to navigate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bautista said his eyes are now more open to ownership opportunities in other leagues, but he\u2019s focused on maximizing the opportunity in Las Vegas first.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d Bautista said, \u201cit\u2019s (about) having the ability to say: Yes, I was an athlete. I played baseball. I hit a white ball with a round bat for a long time. But I didn\u2019t stop there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Gelb, Katie Woo, Brittany Ghiroli and Jes\u00fas Cano contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travis Kelce is a three-time Super Bowl champion and the soon-to-be husband of the planet\u2019s preeminent pop star, Taylor Swift. He\u2019s a record-setting NFL tight end and a podcast host regularly hounded by paparazzi. Last month, however, Kelce was back home in Northeast Ohio to celebrate his latest title: minority stakeholder in the Cleveland Guardians. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2022836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2022836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2022836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2022836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2022836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}