Tom Brady, a surefire future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and arguably the greatest player in NFL history, could be on the precipice of NFL ownership.
Brady and businessman Tom Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, came to an agreement with Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis to buy into the franchise last year. Their bid will be discussed at the NFL’s owners’ meetings on Tuesday in Atlanta, according to a league source. The league’s financial committee will review Brady’s bid, with a potential vote to follow.
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Here’s an explainer of how Brady and the Raiders got here:
What is the process for Brady becoming a part-owner of the Raiders?
Brady and Wagner had to reach an agreement with Davis to purchase a minority stake in the franchise, which they did in May 2023. From there, the bid is reviewed by the NFL’s finance committee, which was formed last year and is composed of owners. The committee decides if the bid will proceed to a vote. If it does, the bid must be approved by 24 of the NFL’s 32 majority owners.
What would his ownership share be, and how much is he paying for it?
According to league sources, the agreement between Brady, Wagner and Davis is for a 10 percent stake in the Raiders. CNBC estimated the value of the Raiders to be $7.8 billion last month, but that doesn’t mean Brady and Wagner have to pay $780 million.
That’s because a valuation is based on the estimated price the Raiders would draw if Davis sold the entire stake. The price Brady and Wagner agreed on with Davis has not been disclosed, but it’ll likely be substantially less than 10 percent of the valuation of the Raiders.
How does one pay for, say, a 10 percent share of an NFL team? Does he have to come up with cash, or is it a payout over a longer period?
Brady and Wagner have to pay cash. If they don’t have the full amount on hand, they’ll have to take out a loan.
Why has the process taken so long?
It has taken some time to nail down the final price. According to The Washington Post, the NFL’s finance committee raised concerns last year that Davis was giving Brady and Wagner too much of a discount. The Post reported earlier this month that Brady and Wagner have since increased their offer to “far more money than originally proposed.”
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What would be different for Brady given his TV broadcasting career?
The NFL has already placed restrictions on Brady in his role as a Fox analyst, which Brady agreed to before the start of this season, according to a league source. He’s not allowed access to other teams’ facilities and practices, nor can he attend broadcast production meetings, which usually include meetings with coaches and players ahead of games. He’s also not allowed to publicly criticize officials or other teams and could be fined or suspended if the league feels he breaks that policy. He also must abide by the league’s gambling and anti-tampering policies and is limited to “strictly social communication” with members of other teams.
What is Brady’s connection to Raiders owner Mark Davis?
In January 2020, Brady attended UFC 246 and was photographed smiling while talking to Davis, whom he’d previously met, and then-Raiders executive Marcel Reece. The Raiders were moving to Las Vegas, while Brady was coming off what would be his final season with the New England Patriots. With Brady set to become an unrestricted free agent that March, rumors were swirling that he could potentially sign with the Raiders to replace then-starting quarterback Derek Carr.
The Raiders considered pursuing Brady, but then-coach Jon Gruden, who had personnel power, ultimately decided against it and stuck with Carr. Brady went on to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the Raiders’ flirtation was the start of a deeper relationship with Davis, who took over as head of the franchise following the death of his father, Al, in 2011.
In May 2022, Brady attended a Las Vegas Aces game. He caught up with Davis, who purchased the WNBA franchise in 2021, and expressed his admiration for what they were building. On the court, the team was thriving and en route to its first WNBA championship. From a fan base perspective, the Aces were regularly selling out games and drawing some of the best attendance numbers in the league.
“I think (Brady) was just really impressed with how far women’s basketball has come,” Davis told The Athletic last year. “And he was also impressed by the excitement and the enthusiasm of the crowd in Las Vegas.”
Shortly after the game, Brady’s representatives reached out to Davis and asked whether he would be willing to sell a minority stake in the Aces. In March 2023, the Aces announced that Brady had reached an agreement with Davis to become a minority owner. The purchase was approved by the WNBA’s other owners in October. The percentage of Brady’s stake and the amount he paid for it remain undisclosed.
“He knew that I was in it, and I think he just felt he wanted to be a part of it,” Davis said. “His people contacted me and we talked about it, and he became a partner.”
In May 2023, Davis told ESPN he had come to an agreement with Brady for the former quarterback to purchase a minority ownership stake in the Raiders.
“We’re excited for Tom to join the Raiders,” Davis told ESPN, “and it’s exciting because he will be just the third player in the history of the National Football League (after George Halas Sr. and Jerry Richardson) to become an owner.”
Mark Davis and Tom Brady attend UFC 246 in Las Vegas on Jan. 18, 2020. (Jeff Bottari / Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Why is Brady trying to purchase a share of the Raiders — and not the Patriots, Buccaneers or his hometown San Francisco 49ers?
It all starts with the existing business relationship between Brady and Davis. You can’t buy a stake in a team without an owner being willing to sell a portion of his or her stake and it’s unclear if that would’ve been possible with the Patriots, Buccaneers or 49ers. The Patriots, for one, are 100 percent owned by Robert Kraft and he told Fox Business in February 2023, “I’m never selling it. We’ve set it up so it hopefully stays in the family for many decades to come.”
It’s also possible Brady viewed the Raiders as a more attractive investment. Among the four aforementioned teams, only the Patriots — valued at $7.9 billion — are worth more than the Raiders, per CNBC’s estimation. Their report has the 49ers at $7.4 billion and the Bucs at $6.05 billion.
The report also suggests that the Raiders are generating more revenue than those three other teams. According to CNBC, the Raiders generated $780 million in revenue in the past year, which trails only the Dallas Cowboys ($1.22 billion) and Los Angeles Rams ($825 million). That, plus Davis being willing to sell, is likely part of the reason this came together.
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Does this mean Brady would have any sort of control of the Raiders?
No. To be considered a majority owner by the NFL, someone who buys into the franchise must acquire at least a 30 percent stake. At that point, they could have voting rights and team control. Because Brady and Wagner are purchasing only 10 percent of the Raiders, they won’t have control. That’s another reason why they won’t pay 10 percent of the valuation of the Raiders.
“If somebody buys what’s called a limited partnership share, they pay a much lower valuation because they don’t have any control,” a former NFL executive told The Athletic last month. “They’re basically just passive investors. It’d be like if you were selling the garage of your house. You wouldn’t sell it on a per-square-foot basis. Somebody would pay a lot less because they don’t own the house.”
How many other minority owners do the Raiders have?
Davis and his mother, Carol Davis, are listed as co-owners of the Raiders and own 47 percent of the franchise. That number would drop if Brady and Wagner’s bid is approved, but the Davis family would remain the principal owners. As of 2022, the NFL dropped the minimum percentage of a team that a longstanding owner must control from 5 percent to 1 percent for teams with the same owner for at least 10 years.
When the late Al Davis became principal owner in 1972, he founded a company called A.D. Football Inc. alongside eight partners. The original eight partners have passed, but their heirs became limited partners.
The Raiders 2024 media guide lists six other “interest holders” in the franchise: A. Boscacci, Jill Boscacci Lovingfoss, First Football, Winkenbach Family, Fox Football and Sargent Family.
Could Brady still return to play in the NFL as a part-owner?
No. NFL rules state that employees can’t own equity in a team unless they are family members of the team’s owner.
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What is the Raiders’ succession plan after Mark Davis? Could Brady eventually become the primary owner?
It’s unknown. Mark Davis, 69, has no siblings and is single with no children. Carol Davis is in her 90s. If they still have stakes in the franchise when they die, their ownership stakes could either be passed on to someone else in the family or sold.
Brady could attempt to purchase their stakes in the latter scenario. He could also attempt to purchase their stakes while they’re living — or those of the other limited partners. Not only would he need to cross the 30 percent threshold, but he’d also need to own more shares than Carol and Mark Davis to become the “controlling” owner. If Carol and Mark Davis ever decided to sell, there would likely be suitors beyond Brady.
“It’ll be a real ‘Game of Thrones’ when that happens,” a former NFL executive told The Athletic. “When something’s worth $1,000, there’s not a fight. When something’s worth $10 billion, it gets pretty ugly.”
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(Top illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Cooper Neill and Ethan Miller / Getty Images and Matthew Pearce / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)