Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan told CNBC that NFL franchises remain undervalued relative to technology companies and other major sports assets, a statement that lands three months after the league opened 24.5% of team equity to institutional capital. Khan, who purchased the Jaguars for $770M in 2012 and now oversees a franchise Forbes values at $5.2B, did not name specific acquisition targets but framed NFL ownership as a durable asset class still trading below intrinsic worth.
The remarks arrive as the league's private-equity pilot enters operational phase. Ares Management, Arctos Partners, and Sixth Street have received approval to deploy capital across up to six franchises each, with position limits capped at 10% per fund and 3% for individual limited partners. No deals have closed publicly, but three ownership groups are in advanced conversations with PE firms, per sources familiar. Khan's comments function as both valuation defense—Jacksonville ranks 28th in revenue among 32 teams—and market signal to allocators sizing NFL exposure against NBA stakes, where minority positions in top-10 franchises have cleared $6B enterprise values.
Khan's calculus is clean. The Jaguars generate roughly $550M in annual revenue, trailing Dallas ($1.14B) and New England ($790M) but ahead of Cincinnati ($512M). Local broadcast rights renew in 2029; national media deals run through 2033 at $12B annually, 3.1x the prior cycle. Khan has committed $1.4B to stadium district development anchored by "Stadium of the Future" renovations breaking ground in 2025, a public-private structure that shifts $775M in construction risk to the city while Khan retains upside from 12 months of event programming. The investment thesis is stadium-adjacent real estate—the model that turned the Bucks' Deer District into a $1.1B asset independent of team valuation.
The undervaluation argument hinges on scarcity and income stability. Thirty-two teams, zero expansion since 2002, and revenue-sharing mechanics that compress bottom-quartile franchises toward the mean. Khan's Jaguars took $396M in shared revenue last season—roughly 72% of total intake—while Dallas kept $1.14B and sent $398M to the pool. Private-equity funds are pricing this floor at 10-12x EBITDA, slightly rich to English Premier League clubs but tight to Formula 1 teams, where Liberty Media's $8B bid for MotoGP suggests 13x multiples for global motorsport assets.
What Khan did not mention: the Jaguars are *losing* local market share. Average attendance dropped from 64,821 in 2018 to 62,407 in 2024, and the team has moved one home game annually to London since 2013, effectively ceding 6% of its gate to international growth experiments. Jacksonville's metro population ranks 40th nationally, trailing every NFL city except Green Bay and Buffalo. The franchise trades at a 15% discount to league median precisely because it lacks the corporate density that drives suite revenue and the population base that supports $200 secondary-market tickets.
Khan's public positioning matters for two near-term catalysts. First, NFL owners vote in May 2025 on raising the private-equity cap from 10% to 15% per team, which would unlock an additional $8B in institutional inflows across the league. Second, the Commanders are expected to sell a 15-20% stake to Sixth Street by midyear, establishing a precedent price for mid-market franchises in transition. If that deal clears $6.2B enterprise value—the whisper number—Khan's remarks will have aged well. If it prints below $5.8B, they function as self-interested floor-setting.
Meanwhile, Khan's non-NFL portfolio complicates the narrative. He owns Fulham FC (English Premier League), which he acquired for £150M in 2013 and has valued privately near £500M, and All Elite Wrestling, launched in 2019 with his son Tony. AEW signed a $555M domestic rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2024, tripling prior terms, but the promotion loses an estimated $40M annually on live event operations. Khan is leveraging sports asset appreciation to subsidize content IP development—a portfolio construction strategy that suggests he views NFL franchises as the ballast, not the growth engine.
The league's next expansion discussion is scheduled for late 2025, with Toronto, London, and Mexico City circulating as hypothetical markets. Entry fee estimates range from $4B to $6B, depending on stadium commitments and revenue-sharing concessions. Khan has the inside track on London, having staged 35 Jaguars games there since 2013, but expansion would dilute existing franchises' shared revenue by roughly 3%, creating a collective-action problem that requires 24 of 32 owner votes to overcome.
Watch the Commanders' minority stake close. Watch Khan's stadium financing finalize in Q2 2025. Watch whether Jacksonville sells its London game package to a PE-backed franchise looking to test international revenue models at lower political cost.
The takeaway
Khan's undervaluation thesis depends on private equity validating **10-12x EBITDA** multiples before the Jaguars' market-size constraints reprice the asset.
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