BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Since they bought the Buffalo Bills in 2014 Terry and Kim Pegula have been the sole owners of our hometown football team, but that may soon change.
The Sports Business Journal reports that the Pegulas now have a deal to sell a non-controlling interest in the Bills to a private equity firm, along with a group of business executives and former professional athletes.
According to the report, the Pegula's would maintain ownership of around 79% of the Bills, selling 10% to the private equity firm Arctos Partners and another 10.6% to a group of investors including former NBA stars Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
I spoke with Ben Fischer from the Sports Business Journal on Tuesday. Fischer broke the story with new details on the investors included in the deal.
"Over the last five or 10 years, you've heard a lot of stories about an owner wanting to sell part of their equity for one reason or another, but not being able to close these deals," said Fischer. "Everybody needs cash to do things, and it's been difficult to sell these stakes because, as I said before, the rules allowing the private equity companies coming in. It's hard to find individuals to buy these."
Fischer believes there are many reasons why selling a minority stake in the Bills makes sense for the Pegulas.
"There's debt, you know, maybe they have long-term debt that they would like to extinguish and now instead of digging in their own pockets to pay off that debt they can use this cash they've raised in the equity sale to to extinguish debt," said Fischer. "Real estate projects, you know, a lot of NFL owners love to do a little restaurant or a mall next to their practice facility, you know, maybe they have plans for something like that down the road like the Patriots and the Cowboys have done."
The deal to sell a non-controlling stake in the Bills was expected to be on the agenda for the NFL Finance Committee on Tuesday. If approved, NFL owners would then vote to finalize the deal in December.
The Pegulas bought the Buffalo Bills in 2014 for $1.4 Billion. The Sports Business Journal recently valued the franchise at $5.35 billion.
