The NFL finance committee has reviewed Tom Brady’s bid to purchase a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders and plans to submit it to league owners for a vote at the NFL’s owners’ meetings Tuesday in Atlanta, according to a league sources.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion needs 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners to vote in his favor, but that’s believed to be a formality. If approved, Brady would become just the third former player in NFL history to achieve ownership after George Halas Sr. and Jerry Richardson.
Brady and businessman Tom Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, came to an agreement with Raiders owner Mark Davis to buy approximately 10 percent of the franchise last year, according to league sources. The process has taken so long to play out because it took time to nail down the final price.
According to The Washington Post, the NFL’s finance committee raised concerns last year, saying Davis was giving Brady and Wagner too much of a discount. The Post reported earlier this month Brady and Wagner have since increased their offer to “far more money than originally proposed.”
While Brady wouldn’t assume any control of Las Vegas — someone who buys into the franchise must acquire at least a 30 percent stake to be considered a majority owner by the NFL — it remains significant if he joins the team ownership group. Davis, 69, has no siblings and is single with no children.
His mother, Carol Davis, is in her 90s. If they still have stakes in the franchise when they die, their ownership stakes could either be passed on to someone else in the family or sold. Mark and his mother are listed as co-owners of the Raiders and own 47 percent of the franchise.
That number would drop if Brady and Wagner’s bid is approved, but the Davis family would remain the principal owners. As of 2022, the NFL dropped the minimum percentage of a team that a longstanding owner must control from five to one percent for teams with the same owner for at least 10 years.
When the late Al Davis became principal owner in 1972, he founded a company called A.D. Football Inc. alongside eight partners.
The original eight partners have passed away, but their heirs became limited partners. Las Vegas’ 2024 media guide lists six other “interest holders” in the franchise: A. Boscacci, Jill Boscacci Lovingfoss, First Football, Winkenbach Family, Fox Football and Sargent Family.
Brady could attempt to purchase the Davis family’s remaining stakes while they’re living — or those of the other limited partners — but that still wouldn’t guarantee he assumes control. Not only would he need to cross the 30 percent threshold, but he’d also need to own more shares than Carol and Mark to become the “controlling” owner.
If Carol and Mark ever decided to sell, there would likely be suitors beyond Brady.
“It’ll be a real ‘Game of Thrones’ when that happens,” a former NFL executive told The Athletic. “When something’s worth $1,000, there’s not a fight. When something’s worth $10 billion, it gets pretty ugly.”
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