March 27, 2024

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The NFL still isn’t quite ready to approve the entry of private equity into the ownership ranks. … Two storied pro football franchises are considering big stadium moves. … Arthur Blank and the Falcons look to dodge tampering claims. … And what did those covering Shohei Ohtani think of his interpreter before the betting scandal broke?

But before we get to today’s news … free merch alert! Each day during March Madness, we’re giving away an always stylish Front Office Sports hat to one lucky listener who reviews the FOS Today podcast on Apple, which you can do here [[link removed]]. We appreciate the support, and we know you’ll appreciate the new look!

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

No Vote, for Now: Why Private Equity’s NFL Wait Continues [[link removed]]

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Every other U.S. major league has done it. There is a need for it. But the NFL is in no rush to approve private equity ownership in teams, pushing back a vote that last year many thought would take place this week to now possibly October.

NFL owners still are studying the right type of investors as the universe of institutional money is larger than just private equity, says an NFL official. Questions about how private equity firms, or others, would exit their investment in the teams is also a question, as to date there has been only one exit among the dozens of such investments in NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS teams, this official says. That was Dyal HomeCourt and the Suns, which were bought last year by Mat Ishbia. What the maximum percentage of investment would be allowed is undecided (the top percent in the other leagues is 20%). There are even questions about which level of vetting the secretive funds would tolerate to meet the NFL’s probing requirements.

“Well, I believe our ownership policies are really important,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (above) told reporters Tuesday. “I know our ownership does, too. We had a report on it yesterday and a lengthy discussion about it. I think the committee has worked incredibly hard. And they’ve been very deliberate in the way they’ve evaluated the different alternatives. We’re making progress. I think there’ll be some changes, maybe as early as May, probably closer to October.”

That committee is a special ownership one, which Goodell formed in October 2023. Questioned about his comments then that a decision could come by the recently concluded annual meeting, Goodell said the committee is close.

“They came very close to sort of outlining an approach,” he said. “And the approach is something that we want to make sure [we are] aligned with, but I think that’s true. Now we have a lot of work to do to take that approach into reality. So I feel very comfortable with the timing. I feel zero pressure. I don’t think our committee does nor our membership. So we’ll continue to go through that process and come to the best conclusion, regardless of the time.”

Soaring Franchise Values

Rising franchise values and tight debt rules have created a limited pool of buyers who can afford an NFL team. The Commanders sold for $6.05 billion last year, and owner Josh Harris struggled to make the deal work. Also, as heirs to teams face steep estate taxes, private equity investment could play a role in raising funds to pay the IRS bill.

Speaking of investments, Goodell said on the status of Tom Brady’s effort to invest in the Raiders, “We go through a very thorough process on all of the transfers. So we are just going through that process, we’ve been in touch with the Raiders. I think it’s making progress.”

Initially Brady received a discount for his agreement to buy a small slice of the team, which generated pushback from owners. His pending role as a Fox NFL broadcaster also has been cited as a possible hurdle.

Chiefs and Browns Could Break Tradition, Leave Longtime Homes [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Could two of the NFL’s most iconic locales—Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium and the Cleveland lakefront—be abandoned in search of other stadium sites? That’s the potential situation now developing as both the Chiefs and Browns look to solidify their venue futures.

The Chiefs have been at Arrowhead Stadium (above) since 1972, and the Browns have played on the shore of Lake Erie since ’46, with the exception of the three years in the ’90s between the two versions of the franchise. But amid continued uncertainty in both cities regarding planned stadium projects, the Chiefs and Browns are increasingly evaluating other options.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs are on an April 2 ballot in Jackson County, Missouri, along with MLB’s neighboring Royals (above, background). The pair of teams are seeking to implement a ⅜-cent sales tax for 40 years, with that money targeted toward a planned new Royals ballpark [[link removed]] and renovations to Arrowhead Stadium. That measure reached a ballot after the county legislature overrode a veto from county executive Frank White.

But White has continued to speak out against the possible tax extension, recently saying “taxpayers are being asked to pay more than $2 billion over 40 years to private businesses that … have not been transparent with their projects or plans.” That prompted the teams’ most overt threat to look at other locales should the vote fail, amplifying other similar comments [[link removed]] made recently.

“If April 2 results in a ‘no’ vote for the Chiefs and Royals, we will explore all options for where we will play come 2031,” the teams said in an open letter [[link removed]] to the Jackson County legislature that was particularly critical of White.

Given how strong a performer the Chiefs particularly are, both on and off the field, it’s seemingly unthinkable the team would leave the Kansas City area altogether. As such, it’s likely that initial fallback options could include nearby jurisdictions such as Clay County, Missouri—where the Royals previously considered building—or Johnson County, Kansas.

Who Is Frank White?

Some baseball fans will recognize this name, as the Jackson County executive moved into politics a decade ago after a previous career in MLB. He earned a place in the Royals’ hall of fame as a star second baseman and fixture on the 1985 World Series champion team and six other division-winning squads. White also had prior stints as a Royals coach, front office executive, and broadcaster.

But White has been estranged [[link removed]] from the Royals for many years, with bad feelings first developing in the early 2000s following a cut of his salary, being passed over for the team’s managerial job, and then when he was pushed out of the team’s broadcast booth, reportedly due to his harsh criticism of poor-performing Royals teams.

A New Dawg Pound?

Last year, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said he was committed to staying in downtown Cleveland and renovating Cleveland Browns Stadium. Now, that sentiment has changed, as the team is also actively considering building a $2 billion domed facility in suburban Brook Park, Ohio, where Haslam and his wife, Dee, have an option to buy 176 acres of land. Brook Park is near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

The Haslams insist the new consideration is not a negotiating ploy to extract taxpayer dollars for a $1 billion downtown renovation, and that neither option is currently favored over the other.

“We’re looking at both options. Not one option is above the other,” Dee Haslam said. “But I do think Cleveland deserves to be thought of as this evolving, forward-thinking creative city as opposed to not thinking big.”

Similar to the Bears’ efforts in Chicago [[link removed]], building a domed stadium would open up Cleveland to bid for hosting large-scale indoor events (Super Bowl, Final Four, and College Football Playoff, for example) that it currently cannot.

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FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY The Mystery of Ippei Mizuhara

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Mike DiGiovanna has covered the Angels and Dodgers for the Los Angeles Times for more than two decades. He was as shocked as anyone when news broke that Shohei Ohtani’s now former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara (above), had allegedly stolen $4.5 million from the MLB superstar to pay off Mizuhara’s gambling debts. DiGiovanna joins the pod today and reveals that for years he thought of Mizuhara as simply a soft-spoken person and a “fun-loving guy.” All of that has suddenly changed.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].

TIME CAPSULE March 27, 1998: Packing ’Em In

NBA.com/Hawks

On this day 26 years ago: The NBA set a league attendance record by drawing 62,046 to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome for a Bulls-Hawks game. The game, featuring Michael Jordan in what would be his last season with the Bulls, established a league mark that would last for 12 years in any context until the 2010 All-Star Game at what is now AT&T Stadium, and it stood for a quarter century in the regular season until a ’23 game at San Antonio’s Alamodome that attracted [[link removed]] 68,323.

The initial ingredients for the attendance record in Atlanta were in place as the Hawks spent 1997–99 splitting time between the Georgia Dome and Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum while what is now State Farm Arena (and current home) was under construction. But as fan speculation rose that the ’98 game could be Jordan’s last in Atlanta as a player, the Hawks sold more than 8,000 seats in poor locations at the dome at $5 each in the last two days leading up to the event, raising money for local victims of recent tornadoes and allowing the new record to be set.

The NBA has ventured into NFL facilities for only rare and special circumstances such as these. But with new domed stadiums potentially coming in markets such as Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington, it bears watching whether there will be another run made at the attendance record.

LOUD AND CLEAR Timing Is Everything

Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

“They’ll review the process and the facts and they are in the middle of doing that, and whatever the result is, we’ll deal with it.”

—Falcons owner Arthur Blank (above) on the NFL’s ongoing investigation [[link removed]] into whether his team broke the league’s tampering rules before signing former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year deal worth up to $180 million when free agency kicked off March 13. “The tampering deal, we obviously don’t believe we tampered, and we shared all the information with the league,” Blank said.

Part of the issue is Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney, announced on social media that the signal-caller had agreed to terms with Atlanta two days before. Further complicating things is the fact that Cousins mentioned during his introductory press conference that he had spoken with the Falcons’ head trainer before March 13. Teams were allowed to speak with agents during a legal negotiating window from noon on March 11 to 4 p.m. ET on March 13, but players are not allowed to speak directly with teams (unless they are representing themselves and don’t have an agent).

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS AWARDS

Last Call for Entries

This is your final chance to submit your venue for the 2024 Best Venues Award [[link removed]]. The entry window closes Monday, April 8 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Based on data-driven methodology and backed by Sports Innovation Lab, the list of most innovative and leading venues will be revealed this spring. Don’t miss your opportunity to have your venue considered!

Learn more about the award and submit your venue [[link removed]] today.

Conversation Starters From Dec. 20 to New Year’s Day, nearly every day will feature either a College Football Playoff game, an NFL game, or both. Check it out [[link removed]]. Oregon and its NIL collective, Division Street, released [[link removed]] the “University of Oregon” Nike Air Max 1 on Tuesday, with proceeds benefiting Oregon athletes. You don’t have to be a math expert to get the keys to your dream car. Kelley Blue Book My Wallet by Autotrader will crunch your numbers and give you personalized results so you know exactly how much you’ll pay each month for your car. Learn more [[link removed][InsertCachebusterHere]PA__;dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;ltd=;dc_tdv=1].* Editors’ Picks The NFL, Not One to Borrow, Appropriates the Old XFL Kickoff [[link removed]]by Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]]The revamp is an outlier for the league and took two votes to pass. The MLS Replacement Ref Nightmare Is Over [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]The monthlong referee lockout could end this weekend. The Pac-12’s Departing Members Have Inked Their Divorce Contract [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought last fall. DISCLAIMER

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