Tom Brady has been approved to join the NFL’s ownership ranks, one of the final steps in an investment into the Las Vegas Raiders that stretches back more than two years.
The former NFL quarterback and Knighthead Capital co-founder Tom Wagner have an agreement in place to buy 10% of the Las Vegas Raiders. The deal was unanimously approved by NFL owners in a 32-0 vote Tuesday during league meetings in Atlanta, according to an NFL spokesman and Brady.
“I’d like to thank (majority owner) Mark Davis for welcoming me into his family, and the tireless work he’s done to help build on the organization that so many fans know and love today,” Brady wrote in a statement. “Also thank you to commissioner (Roger) Goodell for his support, as well as all the NFL owners that supported my dream—I’m forever grateful.”
Brady and Wagner reached an initial agreement in May 2023, but the league balked at the purchase price, among other concerns. The financial specifics were amended multiple times in the past year, finally settling on a structure that the NFL was comfortable approving.
In February, Sportico reported that the valuation in the original deal had been revised upward following pushback. At the time, Brady’s piece of the 10% was about 7%. It is now about 5%, according to someone familiar with the details. Former NFL player Richard Seymour was also approved for a small Raiders stake, according to the NFL spokesman.
Sportico currently values the Raiders at $6.7 billion, though the minority stake almost certainly carries a smaller valuation.
If Brady’s deal closes, he will become part of a small group of former NFL players who later joined the league’s ownership ranks in a meaningful way. Late Chicago Bears owner George Halas played in the 1920s, and late Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made his NFL debut in the 1950s. Former running back Warrick Dunn (Falcons) and former wide receiver John Stallworth (Steelers) have both been team LPs.
Brady and Raiders control owner Mark Davis seriously discussed the quarterback’s investing back in 2022, when he initially retired, but the talks were put on hold when Brady returned to the league for the 2022 season. Active players, like all team employees not related to the owner, are not allowed to hold team equity.
The talks reignited in early 2023 when Brady retired for good, and the agreement (at the 2022 price) was announced in May, pending league approval. It quickly drew objections from some members of the league’s finance committee, Sportico previously reported, who had concerns about Brady’s Fox status, his finances, and what might happen if he went to work for the Raiders. The biggest issue was the price, which many saw as too steep a discount. In response, the valuation was later raised to match the price in a separate Raiders LP transaction from 2023 involving existing investors.
Brady’s deal involves the acquisition of some specific shares—called RLP Shares on the Raiders’ cap table—that are structured slightly differently than other equity, according to Sportico’s prior reporting. Those shares, which represent about 6% of the team, are not subject to any other Raiders investors’ “right of first refusal,” meaning no one else can swoop in and match the price agreed to between Davis and the Brady group. Some around the NFL speculated that this was intentional—that the original deal wouldn’t have been feasible at all without that specific class of shares because other LPs would have jumped to buy at the discount. The shares are the same as others once they are purchased.
Wagner and Brady met years ago when their children were classmates at the same New York City school, the former said last year on Bloomberg’s Masters in Business podcast. They’ve co-invested in a number of sports deals, including English soccer club Birmingham City, a Major League Pickleball franchise and an auto-racing team that competes in the World Endurance Championship.
Brady is also a minority owner in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, which are controlled by Davis.
(This story has been updated to add a statement from Brady.)
