List Of NFL Franchise Owners
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Ownership restrictions
The NFL forbids corporations, religious groups, governments, and non-profit organizations from owning stakes in teams. The NFL requires a controlling owner to hold at minimum a 30% stake in the team and forbids ownership groups of over 24 people, or any publicly traded corporations from purchasing NFL teams; one team, the Green Bay Packers, is exempt from this under a grandfather clause and is owned by shareholders. The Houston Texans are also grandfathered in for their home county–the Harris County, Texas government–which owns 5% of the team, as the rule forbidding governments from owning a team became effective in 2007. The NFL's constitution also forbids its owners from owning any other professional football teams, although an exception was made for teams from the now-defunct Arena Football League located in the NFL team's home market. In addition, the controlling owners of NFL teams were previously only permitted to own major league baseball, basketball and hockey teams if they were in the NFL team's home market, or were not located in other NFL cities.
Stan Kroenke, who owned hockey and basketball teams in Denver, was nonetheless unanimously allowed to buy the then-St. Louis Rams in 2010 and hold on to his Denver assets until 2015. Even then, the Denver assets were transferred to his wife, Ann. Soccer has been exempt from these restrictions since 1982, when the league lost a lawsuit filed by the original NASL stemming from the investments of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Elizabeth Robbie, the wife of Miami Dolphins founder Joe Robbie in NASL teams; as a result, NFL owners have owned teams in MLS in other NFL markets. In October 2018, the NFL owners voted to relax the cross-ownership rule, allowing controlling NFL owners to own other professional teams within NFL markets outside their home market. The league also informally requires prospective owners to have high liquidity in their assets and positive cash flow; having a majority of one's wealth invested in real estate is often grounds for rejection.
See also
- List of NHL franchise owners
- List of NBA team owners
- List of Major League Baseball principal owners
- List of MLS team owners
Notelist
- ^ Majority or controlling owner in a limited partnership.
- ^ Includes his daughter and her husband. Other non-family members of the ownership group include Mellody Hobson, Condoleezza Rice, and Sir Lewis Hamilton.
- ^ Public corporation with a grandfathered exception to modern NFL ownership rules. The team is governed by a board of directors with president and CEO Mark Murphy representing the team.
- ^ The four children of team founder Lamar Hunt share legal ownership, with Clark Hunt as acting owner.
- ^ Jody Allen represents the estate of Paul Allen, who mandated the eventual sale of the team in his will.
- ^ Representing the children, widowed daughter-in-law, and grandchildren of founding owner Bud Adams.
- ^ Limited partners: