Private Equity Is Moving Into NFL Ownership and One Rhode Islander Is in the Game

Private Equity Is Moving Into NFL Ownership and One Rhode Islander Is in the Game

Last week, the NFL approved a new policy allowing private equity firms to buy their way into team ownership.

The approved private equity groups are comprised of mega-firms, except for one, which is small and was co-founded by Rhode Island native Jonathan Nelson.

Nelson, along with Paul Salem and Glenn Creamer, helped to establish Providence Equity as one of the country’s top investment firms in the early 2000s.

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In 2022, Nelson announced the launch of Dynasty Equity, a sports-focused private equity fund. Nelson teamed up with Don Cornwell, who was then a partner at PJT Partners.

Now, Nelson and Cornwell's Dynasty are on the select list of firms getting the green light to invest in NFL franchises.

“NFL owners passed a new policy that will allow them to sell up to 10% of their teams to a select group of preapproved firms. It removes the last major hurdle to the flood of private capital sweeping through the sports landscape, which now has firms circling the college game and others amassing portfolios of pro franchises,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

 

Dynasty Is in the Game

By far and away, Dynasty is the smallest firm getting approval by the NFL.

“Credit a long association with the NFL by Dynasty’s majority owner Don Cornwell with setting the firm apart from other, much bigger, contenders,” reports Sportico.

“…just two years after graduating from Harvard, when Cornwell landed a job with the NFL, working as a senior analyst on topics including new media and franchise relocation. He left that job in 1996 to get his MBA from Stanford, but found himself working with the league again during a long career at Morgan Stanley, where he rose to the level of managing director and led the bank’s global sports investment practice.

In his 15 years at Morgan Stanley, Cornwell advised the Wilson family on the sale of the Bills to Terry and Kim Pegula, and led a recapitalization for the Rooney family that allowed them to buy out some family members from the Steelers,” according to Sportico.

 

Tiger and Liverpool, Too

As GoLocal reported in June, TMRW Sports announced the closure of its Series A investment round. The round was co-led by Dynasty Equity, the sports-focused private equity firm co-founded by Rhode Islander Jonathan Nelson. 

TMRW Sports was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Recently, Dynasty closed a strategic minority investment in Liverpool FC.