FSG's next big move
Fenway Sports Group are on their way to becoming the biggest in the world
During the summer, US network CBNC compiled what it believed to be the most valuable sports empires in the world.
To make it on to this list you had to be a heavy hitter and own multiple sports assets in the major American sports leagues, as well as having in the portfolio a slice of the English Premier League, a must-have for any discerning sports investment firm.
Topping the list was Kroenke Sports & Entertainment at $21.17bn, with KSE’s portfolio, built up by Stanley Kroenke, whose wife Anne was heiress to the Walmart supermarket fortune, having accumulated the Los Angeles Rams (NFL, relocated from St Louis), the Denver Nuggets (NBA) and the Colorado Avalanche (NHL). They also had the not-so-insignificant majority shareholding of Liverpool’s Premier League rivals Arsenal.
Next on the list was the Jones family, an American institution whose ownership of the Dallas Cowboys has seen the NFL become the most valuable sports team on the planet. The Cowboys and ownership of Legends Hospitality has seen their portfolio value soar to some $15.53bn.
Then comes the $14.58bn sports portfolio of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. The company, run by founders Josh Harris and David Blitzer, owns the NFL’s Washington Commanders, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, NHL’s New Jersey Devils, not to mention having the majority shareholding at Crystal Palace.
And then, in fourth place, with a total portfolio value of $14.19bn, is Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owners since 2010.
With the Reds, the Boston Red Sox of the MLB, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, NASCAR’s RFK Racing, not to mention the more recent acquisition, through the John W. Henry and Tom Werner-led Strategic Sports Group, of PGA Tour Enterprises.
The $3bn investment saw the creation of the for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises LLC, from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of elite sports owners led by FSG and also including billionaires such as Arthur Blank, Steve Cohen, Wyc Grousbeck, and Thomas Ricketts, The deal introduced equity grants for active PGA Tour players in the face of competition from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund-backed LIV Gold Tour, something that aligned athlete incentives with the commercial growth of the enterprise.
Sources close to FSG say that the PGA Tour element of the business has been where Henry has been spending the most of his time, with the rest of the portfolio looked after via the leadership network that already sits in place, with the football side having been strengthened through the creation of FSG Football last year, where Michael Edwards serves as CEO.
