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This is a list of individuals, groups of individuals, and companies who have owned and operated a professional sports organization. The list is organized first by sport, then by franchise or team, then by owner. If an organization has gone through a significant change (e.g. the team has moved and/or changed names), that information is noted after the years of ownership.
Athletic Bilbao, Osasuna, Barcelona and Real Madrid : these four clubs are not organised as limited companies, but remain as registered associations due to a grandfather clause of the late 1980s. Unlike a limited company, it is not possible to purchase shares in these club, but only membership. Each club member (socio) has a vote to elect democratically the club president and board of directors. The club president cannot invest his own money into the club and the club can only spend what it earns, which is mainly derived through merchandise sales, television rights and ticket sales. This means that each club is owned by its own registered supporters. FC Barcelona has over 150.000 socios, Real Madrid counts over 100.000 socios, Athletic Club over 40.000 and Osasuna over 15.000.
Atlético Madrid : major shareholders are the Gil Marin family which owns 50% of the shares, these used to belong to former club president Jesús Gil y Gil; Israeli businessman Idan Ofer, 33%; current president Enrique Cerezo 10% and the Chinese Wanda Group a 2%.
Eibar : more than 11.130 shareholders located across 65 countries due to a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. There is no major shareholder with an ownership over 5%.
Real Sociedad : Due to club's statutes no shareholder has vote rights over 2% of the shares.
AD Alcorcón : David Blitzer (2019–present)
Bundesliga clubs are required to be majority-owned by German club members (known as the 50+1 rule to discourage control by a single entity) and operate under tight restrictions on the use of debt for acquisitions (a team only receives an operating license if it has solid financials).
(Listed by Constructor)
In Japanese baseball, teams are traditionally owned by companies and bear that company's name. Only one team in recent years has not borne a corporate name—the Yokohama BayStars went without a corporate name from 1993 through 2011 because its owner chose not to attach its name to the team. The company identifier is indicated in bold type in the owner list.
Note: This list reflects the actual control of the franchise. The ownership structure is considerably more complicated. Notably, it was reported that Al Davis owned only a 47% stake in the team when he died in 2011, although he exercised near-total control as the president of the team's general partner. His widow Carol and son Mark inherited his interest in the team, with Mark exercising day-to-day control. See the relevant section of the team article for more details.
The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the fifth oldest active franchise in the CFL. The Stampeders were officially founded in 1945, although there were clubs operating in Calgary since the 1890s.
Ball Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by two nearby exits off Interstate 25. A light rail station is on the western side of the complex. Opened in 1999, it is the home arena of the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (NLL).
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE) is a professional sports and commercial real estate company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With assets that include franchises in four of the six major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, it is the largest sports and entertainment company in Canada, and one of the largest in North America.
George Nield Gillett Jr. is an American businessman. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Vail, Colorado.
Zygmunt "Zygi" Wilf is an American billionaire businessman and real estate developer. He is the chairman and co-owner of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the majority owner of MLS's Orlando City.
COMSAT is a global telecommunications company based in the United States.
Georgia Frontiere was an American businesswoman and entertainer. She was the majority owner and chairperson of the St. Louis Rams NFL team.
Enos Stanley Kroenke is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the WSL, the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, the Los Angeles Gladiators of the Overwatch League, and the Los Angeles Guerrillas of the Call of Duty League.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as Kroenke Sports Enterprises, it was started in 1999 by businessman Stan Kroenke to be the parent company of his sports holdings. Today, the company has control of over five professional sport franchises, and one association football club that has two teams: Arsenal F.C. and Arsenal W.F.C., four stadiums, two professional esports franchised teams, four television channels, an internet TV channel, & 19 magazines which operate under the badge Outdoor Sportsman Group, four radio stations which operate under the badge KSE Radio Ventures, LLC, and websites.
Prime Sports is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, operating from November 1988 to October 31, 1996. While Liberty owned many of these networks, some of Prime's member networks were owned by other companies, and carried programming distributed for the group through affiliation agreements. As a result, Prime-affiliated networks had the right to select Prime Network programs to broadcast.
The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994.
John Olen Pickett Jr. is an American businessman who was owner and Board Chairman of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League during their dynasty period in the 1980s.
The ownership of Arsenal F.C. and Arsenal W.F.C. is considerably different from that of other clubs in English football for men and women. It is owned by a parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, which has relatively few shares which are infrequently traded. Historically, the club has been owned by descendants of the Bracewell-Smith and Hill-Wood families. The club attracted outside interest as two rival tycoons, Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov, acquired significant share holdings in 2007. In August 2018, Kroenke's offer of £550 million for Usmanov's share was accepted, and Kroenke bought out the remainder of the shares to become the club's sole shareholder.
Shahid Rafiq "Shad" Khan is a Pakistani-American billionaire businessman and sports tycoon. He is the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an American supplier of motor vehicle components. Khan is also the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) and Fulham F.C. of the Premier League, and co-owner of the American wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), along with his son, Tony Khan.
Guggenheim Baseball Management is the ownership group of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team. The consortium consisted of Guggenheim controlling partner Mark Walter, and also includes as investors basketball hall of famer Magic Johnson, movie producer Peter Guber, baseball team executive Stan Kasten, and investors Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly. Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss joined the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group in 2018. Entrepreneurs Alan Smolinisky and Robert L. Plummer joined the ownership group in September 2019.
William P. Foley II is an American businessman and former attorney, specializing in financial services. He is chairman of Fidelity National Financial, Cannae Holdings and Black Knight Financial Services, and vice chairman of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS). Foley is the lead investor, chairman, and CEO of Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, a consortium that owns the Vegas Golden Knights. He is managing general partner of Black Knight Football and Entertainment, which owns Premier League club AFC Bournemouth and a stake in French Ligue 1 club FC Lorient. As of 2023, he had an estimated net worth of US$1.6 billion according to Forbes.
Nashville Soccer Club is an American professional soccer club based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in Major League Soccer in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned by John Ingram, owner of Ingram Industries, along with investors and partial owners the Turner family of Dollar General Stores.
May 21, 1922: Col. Ruppert buys out Col. Huston for $1.5 million.