Owning professional sports teams—or a stake in one—has long been an exclusive club. But with an increasing role for institutional investors and the universe expanding to include more leagues, more Canadian family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals are seizing the opportunity to own a piece of this changing asset class.
Broadly, Goldman Sachs’ 2025 Family Office Investment Insights Report pointed to sports as a growing theme, with 25 per cent of family offices already invested in the sector and a further 25 per cent interested.
Several developments have opened the door for more family offices to invest in professional sports, says Robert Janson, co-chief executive officer and chief investment officer at Westcourt Capital in Toronto. Among them are the exponential increase in major league franchise valuations over the past 10 years, the involvement of private equity in the space and the diversification and expansion of the sector.
“It’s a phenomenally interesting sector, because 20 years ago the opportunity didn’t really exist,” Janson says. “It was pretty much a closed-door ecosystem.”
In the past five years, he adds, clients have had more chances to participate, with some taking minority stakes in NHL teams, for example. They are drawn to the business reasons for buying in, such as pro teams’ iconic nature, exclusivity and global brand growth. And they are comfortable making a long-term commitment.
Indeed, Aaron Fransen, partner with Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto, has worked with the Canadian major junior Ontario Hockey League on several franchise sales. He says many high-net-worth individuals and family offices are taking minority stakes in major- and minor-league professional hockey teams.
“It’s no longer one person buying these teams, usually, or one family,” he says. “Existing owners are often exiting because of the valuations or just family planning.”
It’s a phenomenally interesting sector, because 20 years ago, the opportunity didn’t really exist.
Robert Janson, Westcourt Capital
Private equity, says Janson, flagged sports as a burgeoning asset class about five years ago. All four of North America’s major leagues—MLB, NBA, NHL and NBA—now allow minority investments from institutional investors up to varying maximum ownership percentages and minimum hold periods of five or six years.
Several private equity fund managers have been approved to buy minority stakes in teams, and activity has been robust. According to Pitchbook, 75 major North American teams now have private equity connections.
While the asset class is still not broadly accessible, says Janson, the evolving landscape offers the ability for more high-net-worth Canadians to invest, with opportunities still in the early stages.
Where they’re investing
Spencer Clark, head of private markets and thematic investments at Richter Family Office in Montreal, and his team began researching pro sports investments in 2022.
Clients’ reactions to the sector were initially mixed, he notes; some still considered it a “vanity project” investment. Others, however, saw this as a changing asset class, with businesses that have professionalized significantly over the past decade and with diversification benefits relative to the investors’ equity portfolios.
They made their first investment in a fund in 2023, via a group that had already been vetted and approved by the leagues as a buyer. The fund, he says, provides exposure to the “blue chips”—all four major North American sports leagues and, in some cases, multiple teams within the leagues. It was an approach the clients preferred over backing one specific team.
Control ownership of major league teams is still the domain of the wealthiest, Clark notes, but investing in minority interests allows ultra-high-net-worth families to participate in the growth of the asset class.
People are buying sports teams as assets they want to buy and hold for long periods of time.
Aaron Fransen, Stikeman Elliott LLP
“For the majority, going through this type of fund structure is probably what makes the most sense,” he says. “You’re essentially buying minority interests in these teams and you’re paying a little bit of fees to be able to access a wide range of deals.”
While the investment is primarily in major sports leagues, Clark says a smaller part of the group’s allocation is to ancillary investments that are sports-adjacent, such as technology that improves the fan experience, ticketing, gaming applications or data for gambling businesses.
In fact, Janson notes that high-net-worth individuals in Canada have several opportunities to access professional sports teams with amounts below what the large North American leagues require for majority ownership.
“If you depart from the big four leagues, being basketball, baseball, hockey and football, there are legitimate leagues that have popped up that have longevity,” he says. Those include women’s sports leagues as well as e-sports and Formula E car racing. These opportunities extend to the secondary and tertiary businesses around the teams, such as media or food and beverage rights, for example.
“The industry has matured and grown dramatically with regards to the opportunities to invest in different things over the past 10 years,” Janson says.
Indeed, in recent months, families have been active across North America, with a family office purchasing the San Diego Wave FC of the National Women’s Soccer League, another becoming majority owner of AFC Toronto of the Northern Super League, and prominent sports investor Lawrence Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures becoming the first Canadian investor in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
The passion factor
Cary Kaplan, president of Cosmos Sports & Entertainment in Mississauga, Ont., which works with owners to sell their teams to groups in whole or in part, has noticed an increasing interest in pro sports team investment in recent years. It’s being driven by scarcity, rising franchise values and other factors. Beyond the more mature leagues, he notes, are emerging sports on the periphery that likely have growth potential.
At the same time, many opportunities, Kaplan says, are private and confidential, because teams are typically reluctant to spread the word that they’re for sale or selling shares.
More family offices in Canada, in his view, have been taking the minority ownership route rather than becoming primary owners of or investors in a team, which would require a more hands-on approach.
“There’s some of that—more in the U.S.—but I think the primary side has been as a minority investment, and looking at it as an investment and a way to diversify your assets in something that’s interesting,” Kaplan says.
Having a true interest in the sport is also usually part of the decision, he adds. “If it’s just pure investment, there are other things that are typically going to get you a larger return than sports might, so there’s an element of risk here. But it’s also usually tied to some passion for sports.”
Fransen says owners—whether they are buying a majority interest, a minority stake or investing via private equity—are often also seeking a connection to the community along with the financial return, especially with minor league teams.
“My impression is that people buy sports teams for lots of reasons, often not for typical private equity reasons, so not to generate lots of cash flow to distribute out to limited partners. People are buying sports teams as assets they want to buy and hold for long periods of time,” he says.
“It’s one of the rare collective experiences we still have. And people like to own those things so they can be part of it.”
Helen Burnett-Nichols is a Hamilton, Ont.-based business and financial writer. For more than 20 years, she has covered investment, legal, wealth management, entrepreneurship, benefits and pensions, financial planning and personal finance topics for national and industry-focused publications. Prior to embarking on a freelance career, Helen held editorial roles in both Toronto and London, England.
The Canadian Family Offices newsletter comes out on Sundays and Wednesdays. If you are interested in stories about Canadian enterprising families, family offices and the professionals who work with them, sign up for our free newsletter here.
Please visit here to see information about our standards of journalistic excellence.