This is the closest we could get in the NFL to Bears vs. Bulls. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Weird Money

NFL franchises and PE firms are a match made in heaven

The two may solve each other's liquidity issues.

Jack Raines

8/20/24 3:45PM

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that the NFL is meeting on August 27 to “discuss and potentially vote on allowing institutional investors to buy into teams,” and the NFL hired PJT Partners to “assess private equity interest.”

Assuming that a deal were to come together, it makes a ton of sense for both team owners and private equity firms. The reason? NFL teams are really, really, expensive, and private equity firms need somewhere to invest their capital.

There are 32 NFL franchises, and the average franchise is worth $5.1 billion, up from $423 million (or $773 million in 2023 dollars) in 2000. The NFL requires the majority owner of a team to own a 30% stake in the franchise, which means $1.5 billion, on average. There aren’t that many people who can afford to purchase an NFL team. If we assume that an owner wouldn’t want to spend more than 30% of their own wealth on an NFL franchise, only 214 billionaires in America worth $5.1 billion or more would fit the bill. Taking into account that only some percentage of them would have any interest in owning an NFL team, and that market shrinks even further.

Meanwhile, as noted in my other private equity piece, PE firms are raising more than they know what to do with, and they need assets in which they can invest billions of dollars. NFL franchises are cash-generating machines (18 franchises made more than $100 million in operating income in 2023, and all made more than $50 million), and previous discussions between team owners raised the possibility of institutional investors buying 10% to 30% stakes in companies. A 10% stake in the NFL’s least valuable franchise, the Bengals, would cost $350 million, giving these funds a much-needed destination for their cash and providing interested owners with sought-after liquidity.

Max Knoblauch24h

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.