Michael Jordan bought the Charlotte Hornets for $275 million and sold his stake for $3 billion. Sports franchises are now media companies: 92% of last year's top-watched shows were live sports, which command premium advertising dollars. The speaker owns stakes in five teams across different leagues to capture those revenue streams.
Michael Jordan bought the Charlotte Hornets for $275 million 12 and a half years ago. He just sold us— we're one of the buyers— for $3 billion. That's his return on that time period. The first team I was able to make a purchase of was the LAFC Football Club, the soccer team. We built the stadium, I got to help design it, it was fun. Why would you want a sports team? Because sports teams now are media enterprises. Of the 100 most watched shows last year, 92 were sporting events. And they'll watch the ads because sports, the only live you want to see in real time for it to have value for you, and they can do those ads. So now I'm a part of the Dodgers, of the Warriors, the Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins. I have the ownership benefits, plus on top of that, you share in the revenues of every other team's media. So the income streams are amazing. I'll give you an example.
