The Islanders Sell 15% for Almost What the Whole Team Cost

The New York Islanders are selling a slice of the team for almost what the whole franchise cost 12 years ago. The club has agreed to sell roughly 15% of the NHL franchise to a handful of investors at a $3 billion valuation, Sportico reported, citing three people familiar with the details. One investor is in line to buy 10%, and the club has already named venture capital investor David Shuman as a new investor.

The deal still needs NHL approval, and it doesn't change day-to-day operations or governance under controlling owner Scott Malkin, who bought the team with Jon Ledecky in 2014 for $485 million. The Islanders, and BDT & MSD, the bank hired this year to explore a stake sale, declined to comment. The timing was neat: the team opened its season on Sept. 30 in Toronto.

Now do the math. Fifteen percent of $3 billion is about $450 million, which is almost exactly what Malkin and Ledecky paid for the entire club in 2014. The price stands out against Sportico's own numbers, too.

Sportico valued the Islanders at $1.93 billion a year earlier, 14th in the league, and puts the average NHL team at $2.1 billion, more than double the 2022 average. The $3 billion price is more than 50% above that valuation from just a year before, and well above the league average, for a team that ranked only 14th. And because it is a minority deal, the owners raise serious money without giving up the keys.

A day earlier, the details emerged on the Steinbrenners selling a small piece of the Yankees to Apollo. Now it is the Islanders. Selling a slice while keeping control has become the standard way owners cash in on what their teams are now worth.

Chelsea's ownership is being reshuffled as well, with Clearlake Capital acquiring Todd Boehly's stake, a deal reported at £950 million that gives Clearlake full control of the club. And on the other side of the world, Australia's Big Bash League is carving itself into franchises that private investors can own. Television rights and jerseys are being sliced the same way.

NBC gets just one round of the baseball postseason, and built a house out of trading cards to make the most of it. The Suns ran a competitive process for a single jersey patch, and the Nets bundled theirs with a technology deal. The common idea is that each piece of a sports property now carries a price of its own, and there are buyers lining up for them.

For owners, that means they can raise money without letting go, and every new sale at a higher price helps set the value of every other team. For fans, it means the team they love is increasingly a portfolio of assets. Selling a slice while keeping control has become the standard way owners cash in on what their teams are now worth.

structure from 26 oversized trading cards at 30 Rockefeller Center for two days of fan activations as its exclusive Wild Card Series coverage began Sept. 29, its first postseason baseball since 2000 and the only postseason round in its three-year MLB deal. NBC's first Sunday Night Baseball season averaged 2.7 million viewers across 14 broadcasts, the package's best since 2007. ESPN's final season averaged 1.8 million.

multiyear jersey patch deal with Early Warning Services, the Arizona company behind Paze and Zelle, starting this season. PayPal had been on the jersey since 2018. "We had a lot of interest in our patch; it was a very competitive process," said Suns chief executive Josh Bartelstein.

Paze is also the Atlanta Hawks' patch partner, which turns a single sponsorship into a pattern, and this time a hometown business holds the patch.

featuring President Trump ran during Fox's Ohio State-Illinois broadcast and Sunday NFL games over the Sept. 26-27 weekend, Awful Announcing reported, adding that it had asked Fox for comment. AdImpact says the ads have cost taxpayers more than $362,000 so far. The White House calls them public service announcements; senators from both parties have criticized them.

Fox being the only network to run them puts its ad decisions in the spotlight.

official technology, cloud and jersey patch partner, with its cloud technology behind live game replay, in-game entertainment and marketing at Barclays Center, including a real-time 360-degree replay and personalized fan collectibles. The patch will support the Nets' 60th anniversary season. The bundle is the point: the sponsor on the uniform also runs technology fans see in the arena, which helps the team justify the price.

About 15% of the club, subject to NHL approval Clearlake Capital → Chelsea £950M (reported) Acquisition of Todd Boehly's stake, giving Clearlake full control Alibaba → Brooklyn Nets Undisclosed Multiyear technology, cloud and jersey patch partnership Paze → Phoenix Suns Undisclosed Multiyear jersey patch sponsorship, succeeding PayPal

The Peruvian club sold its jersey to a thousand small sponsors. Jury president Shannon Washington of 11 Ounces praised the craft all the way down to the pricing math and the grid on the jersey itself, calling it "fandom doing the work that money used to do." Lucky Fan Index

The campaign for the Polish club took the Creative Commerce Grand Prix, with the jury citing its use of creativity and technology to drive purchases and loyalty. The idea at its center: rewarding the club's most loyal fans. Field Barcode

GUT São Paulo reimagined a football pitch as a giant barcode for Mercado Livre, turning the pitch itself into a place to shop. Alongside the Muni and Wisla Krakow winners, it made three football Grands Prix that put the supporter at the center of how the money gets made.

The Big Bash League's Franchises Are Up for Sale SportsPro examines why the Australian T20 league's teams are being put on the market and what privatization would mean for franchise cricket, set against the Indian Premier League and England's The Hundred. Cricket Australia went back to market after an earlier sale attempt fell short. If private owners come in, the Big Bash would move closer to the model that made the IPL so valuable, where teams are assets to be bought, sold and built up.

Everything in sport is being sold in pieces, and each piece now carries its own price. Owners raise money without letting go, every higher sale helps set every other team's value, and sometimes the fans themselves become the money.