How to Invest in Sports Without Owning a Team

From stadium blocks to licensing rights, here’s the playbook for accredited investors.

September 23, 2025

Hi ,

Every culture has its arena. In Rome it was the Colosseum. In my hometown, St. Louis, it’s CITY SC. Across the world, billions of fans gather around fields, courts, and stadiums to witness something bigger than themselves. Sports are identity, belonging, adrenaline.

I felt that same energy when training for a state cycling championship while running my first business acquisition. One mission fueled the other. Proof of how powerfully sports can drive focus and discipline.

For decades, team ownership was little more than a billionaire’s trophy.

Today, those same franchises have institutionalized into one of the fastest-growing corners of private markets. As an acquisition entrepreneur, I’ve always looked for businesses with durable moats and powerful distribution. In fact, the third company I ever acquired had licensing agreements with college sports teams for apparel. Few assets in the world carry the loyalty, cultural relevance, and structural scarcity that professional sports deliver.

In this issue, we cover:

  • Stack Shift → Why professional sports have become one of the fastest-compounding alternative asset classes — and what’s driving institutional capital into the game.

  • Case Study → How AHM Group turned a scarce parcel next to St. Louis’s CITY SC stadium into a velocity play that shows the real alpha in sports investing.

  • The Playbook → Four actionable ways accredited investors can capture the economics of sports.

The takeaway: sports investing isn’t about owning the scoreboard. It’s about owning the structures that compound around the game — and knowing how to access them.

— Walker Deibel
WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author of Buy Then Build
Founder, Build Wealth— Walker Deibel

SHIFT YOUR STACK

The Fastest Growing Game: Sports as an Asset Class

The scoreboard is shifting and smart capital is piling in.

For most of the last century, investing in sports meant owning a sports team, a path reserved for a select few who could lean on their billions as collateral. That era is over.

Now the move is owning the infrastructure, the licenses, the field. They mean just as much as owning what’s reflected on the scoreboard.  

Professional sports have become institutional. Since 2002, the average NBA franchise has compounded at nearly 13% annually, more than double the S&P 500 over the same period. NFL teams show the same trajectory, with every sale setting new records.

The Ross–Arctos Sports Franchise Index (RASFI) tracks this shift. Built on transaction data and minority stake valuations, it’s the first institutional-grade benchmark for U.S. sports franchises. In 2024, RASFI is up about 22% year-to-date, compared to ~17% for the S&P — and with lower volatility.

Leagues are reinforcing the trend. The NFL recently changed its rules to allow private equity firms to hold minority stakes of up to 10%. For an asset class that once locked out institutions, this is a turning point.

Why are investors rushing in? Because professional sports have become cultural monopolies with fixed supply:

  • Limited franchises → 32 NFL teams, 30 NBA teams. Expansion is rare.

  • Global reach → Audiences tune in weekly, driving monetization across broadcasting, licensing, hospitality, and betting.

  • Layered revenues → Modern teams combine media, real estate, and merchandising into a single growth platform.

So we have loyalty, shared culture, and scarcity – that’s an unstoppable combination..

That’s why Arctos Sports Partners raised over $4B to buy minority stakes across leagues. It’s why Liberty Media’s overhaul of Formula 1 ignited global growth. And it’s why new buyers keep lining up to pay record prices: because ownership demand continues to outpace supply.

The real question for us: how do investors outside the billionaire class capture exposure to an asset class the institutions have already validated? That’s where the numbers tell the story.

Want to deep dive into what’s happening off the field in sports investing? Check out this week’s report to see where the assets are stacking.

CASE STUDY

AHM’s Play into the CITY Soccer Club Orbit

Over a 4 year period, Build Wealth’s real estate partner, St. Louis–based AHM Group silently acquired 12 urban acres of value-add, mixed-use buildings and infill land directly adjacent to the new St. Louis CITY SC soccer stadium. Parcels close to major sports venues are exceedingly rare. Across U.S. metros, fewer than 2% of land transactions occur within walking distance of billion-dollar arenas. AHM seized the opportunity and immediately put the capital to work.

Their strategy blends adaptive reuse, ground-up development, and civic revitalization. Six assets are under renovation. Three new builds are underway, including what will be the largest mass timber structure in the world. Within 90 days, hundreds of jobs are scheduled to move into the district.

This is a velocity thesis: diversified projects, near-term activation, and compounding momentum. The block is being treated like a portfolio, where each building contributes to cash flow and appreciation.

AHM is capturing the gravitational pull that billion-dollar sports venues create. Stadiums attract foot traffic, infrastructure, and outside capital—and the surrounding real estate absorbs the spillover.

Why this matters for investors:

  • Proximity: Stadium districts concentrate people, attention, and capital.

  • Scarcity: Parcels this close to a major venue rarely trade hands.

  • Velocity: Cash flow begins this quarter, with upside extending over the long term.

Public markets trade sports stocks and tokens on sentiment. Private capital taps into the second-order effects—jobs, leases, appreciation—that keep compounding in the background.

For accredited investors, this is the blueprint: position capital where stadium gravity creates durable cash flow. The stadium drives the attention. The orbit captures the wealth.

If you have interest in reviewing AHM’s next major urban acquisition, check out the BuildLegacy fund at Build Wealth’s investor portal. We engineered this deal for our community and is not available anywhere else. Check out our recent update call with AHM principal, Kyle Howerton, just before closing on the initial 11 seed properties HERE.

THE PLAYBOOK

How to Stack Sports Exposure

You don’t need to buy a franchise to profit from the sports economy. The most interesting opportunities sit just outside the spotlight. Here are four plays investors can run today:

1. Shadow the Institutions
Institutional investors are pouring billions into sports. While their funds often demand $1M+ commitments, accredited investors can still participate by shadowing those flows. Feeder funds, secondaries, and co-invest sleeves sometimes open smaller allocations. More importantly, they provide a map of where the smartest money is positioning.

We’ve recently caught wind of sites like Fan Club Sports, a fractional investment platform where you can co-own minor league teams without writing 8-figure checks. And Tifosy, a similar advisory firm for European sports investors. We have no direct experience investing in these syndications but will be watching them closely. 

2. Own the Cash-Flow Layers
The dependable revenue sits in the operations that keep the game running. Sports tech leader Catapult works with more than 3,400 teams worldwide, embedding its analytics into daily training. Concession giants like Delaware North and the newer, PE backed player Legends Hospitality, generate billions each year from stadium contracts. These businesses compound steadily as leagues expand and fans keep showing up.

3. Leverage the Fan Base
The global sports licensing market surpassed $31B in 2023 and continues to expand through media rights, merchandise, and gaming. Intellectual property scales faster than any single franchise.

We’ve seen this firsthand at Build Wealth with our investment in the 007 video game franchise. Content tied to a global fan base compounds well beyond its core product. On September 4th, revenue for First Light preorders didn’t just top the video game charts—it became the best-selling product of any kind. That’s the power of anchoring to an existing fan base.

The same pattern shows up at the institutional level. When Liberty Media acquired Formula 1 in 2017 for $8B, it was a niche league with limited global reach. By restructuring media rights and launching new content like Netflix’s Drive to Survive, they unlocked millions of new fans, pushed sponsorship revenue to record highs, and nearly doubled the sport’s valuation.

Sports IP follows the same curve: anchor to the fandom, and the cash follows. And who knows—maybe our next breakout videogame carries a global sports franchise tie-in. 😉

4. License the Logo
Licensed merchandise is projected to reach $49B globally by 2030. Small businesses that secure official team partnerships monetize demand that already exists. Think apparel shops, novelty goods, and tailgate equipment makers with logo licenses.

For acquisition entrepreneurs, this is an overlooked path to own cash-flowing businesses backed by the brand equity of major sports teams.

Investor takeaway: Fans create the market. Structures capture the upside. And the game behind the game? That’s where wealth grows over time.

WEALTH REBELLION

“In investing, what’s obvious is obviously priced in. Look where others are just watching.” — Howard Marks

Playing the Right Game

Sports are the ultimate mirror of culture. Billions of fans tune in, wear the jerseys, and live and die by the scoreboard. Yet out of those billions, only a couple thousand individuals actually own a piece of a major team. That gap between participation and ownership is where the wealth is built.

That space is where the opportunity lies.

Fans pray for outcomes. Owners compound through structures: the land, licenses, logistics, and localized assets that stadium gravity pulls upward. These assets keep producing long after the crowd goes home.

I learned this lesson in my own way, training for a state cycling championship. The adrenaline was real, but the compounding only came from the discipline, the systems, and the structures I built around the race. I eventually took the state champion title in 2010. Working towards goals is fun. Investing works the same way.

Public markets will always chase hype. Private markets reward those who position capital in the slipstream of cultural inevitabilities.

The choice for investors is simple: stay in the stands, or move from fandom to ownership. Own the orbit, and you own the wealth.

WHAT WE ARE READING

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