LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD: PRIVATE EQUITY CROSS-OWNERSHIP AND ANTITRUST IN PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
- Brooke Franks
- Apr 20
- 1 min read
Professional sports leagues in the United States are undergoing a fundamental shift in
ownership as private-equity firms increasingly acquire minority stakes in team franchises. Since
2019, every major league has opened its ownership structure to institutional investors, bringing
significant capital, rising valuations, and greater financial stability. At the same time, this shift
has introduced a largely overlooked risk: private-equity firms holding financial interests in
multiple competing teams within the same league.
This development challenges a core assumption of antitrust law. Existing doctrine treats
teams as independent economic actors, but cross-ownership by institutional investors may align
incentives across competitors. Economic research on common ownership demonstrates that
overlapping minority stakes can reduce competitive intensity even in the absence of coordination
or control. Despite these risks, current antitrust frameworks, which focus on agreements,
monopolization, and mergers, largely fail to capture incentive-based harms, while league self-
regulation relies on internal rules that lack transparency and enforcement.
This Note examines the rise of private equity in professional sports and identifies a
structural gap between modern ownership practices and antitrust law. It argues that private-
equity cross-ownership creates an antitrust blind spot and proposes a federal Sports Ownership
Transparency and Competition Rule. This proposal emphasizes disclosure, conflict-of-interest
safeguards, and targeted oversight to preserve the benefits of institutional investment while
protecting competitive integrity in professional sports.
