Playing for Scale: The Future of Sports Investing

Nicole Pullen Ross: Ultimately, every investor in a sports team is most interested in winning, and so all of the investment that they can make that will help the team become more valuable allows them to invest more in their players and increase their opportunity for winning.

Allison Nathan: A record price for a minority stake in a major basketball franchise. A multi-billion-dollar investment in one of baseball's most iconic organizations. The first billion-dollar franchise in women's professional sports. And a final court approval of a landmark settlement that will allow college athletes to share directly in revenue.

Together, these headlines show how quickly the business of sports is changing. Teams are no longer simply local family-run businesses. They're becoming global investments, attracting large financial firms and driving new opportunities in media, lending, technology, and real estate. I'm Allison Nathan, and this is Goldman Sachs Exchanges.

Today, we're exploring what's driving that change and what it could mean for investors. Joining me is Nicole Pullen Ross, head of Northeast Private Wealth Management and Sports and Entertainment Solutions at Goldman Sachs. Nicole, thanks for joining us.

Nicole Pullen Ross: So happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Allison Nathan: Nicole, you hosted a whole Goldman Sachs podcast series on investing in sports in late 2024, but at the time, large investment firms were really just beginning to move into the business of sports. So, catch us up. What's happened since then?

Nicole Pullen Ross: It seems like a long time ago, in some ways, and a blink of an eye in others. It's been pretty incredible to see the pace of change over just a couple of years when we last wrote a white paper around investing in sports.

And there are a couple of themes that I would point to that have driven the explosion that we've seen in sports, certainly over the past two years. The first is what's happened around media rights, and the second is the resulting institutional capital, and those two things are very linked.

And I'll start with media rights because that's the core of what's driving revenue growth, given the nature of the media rights contracts that we've seen. And I start with media rights because you think about the value that advertisers find in one of the last places where they can reach their customers, which is around live sports and live events.

And I have to say, being in some of these places where the level of enthusiasm around rooting for the Knicks, for example in the past season or watching your favorite women's soccer team, whatever it might be. The eyeballs are very valuable. And so what that has led to from a media rights perspective is tremendous revenue growth.

And so, the global media rights market has grown 41% since 2020 to about $57.8 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $67 billion in 2026. So that is the core driver of the growth that we've seen from a valuation perspective. And increasingly streaming has been a meaningful part of that growth. And if you live with someone like I do, my mother-in-law, who is a sports fan but finds it increasingly challenging to find the app that has her favorite game, those streaming services now represent about 20% of that media rights growth. And so, it's pretty significant in terms of how we've seen the space evolve and the players in the space over the past few years.

Allison Nathan: So how has that really changed what teams are worth and how investors are thinking about their future earnings? With exposure to these teams.

Nicole Pullen Ross: Yes. So media rights contracts are shared by the leagues, the teams, and the players, and they have driven the valuations to increase across most major leagues in the ecosystem more broadly.

One of the things that it has done, which is the second point in terms of what's been driving the market, is influence the inflow of institutional capital, and there's been a significant shift there. When you think about the number of private equity transactions that happened in 2025, there were just short of 200.

So 192 private equity transactions in 2025. That compares to just 50 in 2018 when we launched our sports and entertainment business here in wealth management. And so that institutional flow has shown up in a lot of meaningful ways. The NFL, as we all know, in 2024, was the last major league to allow institutional investment, and we've seen that activity continue to grow. And we've seen expansion of valuations to some pretty extraordinary levels since then.

Allison Nathan: And so that's really expanded the ways that teams can actually raise money for investment and growth. If you are the team and you are an investor, an owner, have a stake in the team, and you're making that decision, should we bring in more investors or should we actually borrow money, seeing as there's a lot more capital available, how do you make that decision? What factors are at play?

Nicole Pullen Ross: Interestingly, we included a case study in the white paper that we wrote, called Playing for Scale: The Future of Investing in Sports, from one of our clients who was thinking about this very question, and there are lots of considerations.

One is the stability of the investment that you're looking to make. Another is the return expectation. And if you are investing in an expansion team, a women's expansion team, let's call it that, on one end of the spectrum versus a major league NFL team, which is the most mature, the answer to that question is going to vary.

And we see some clients, we were talking to a client who was focused on a facility for a WNBA team, and the question they were asking themselves is, "Should we take public financing or should we do it ourselves?" And ultimately decided to finance privately because they wanted their local community and the funds there to be put to different use to help the community.

So there are a variety of factors that clients think through in terms of understanding the best return and also how to align that passion that they have around sports and the community impact as well.

Allison Nathan: A lot of this capital flowing into the business of sports is actually flowing into the infrastructure, the stadiums, the restaurants, the shops, all of this development around these core stadiums we've all benefited from that, I think, as sports fans. But construction costs are rising. Interest rates are higher. We'll see if that persists. But how do owners decide whether these projects will pay off?

Obviously, a big investment. And how do they really gain confidence in that decision given the long lead time of construction and so many uncertainties as we go farther out into the future?

Nicole Pullen Ross: Yeah. If you think about the average stadium cost now of $1.7 billion, it's a big decision. And having an appreciation of the complexity of solutions that's available is one of the things that our clients think through.

The other component is making sure that they are building something that has an expanse of life. And so not just the fan experience of today, but how can we make sure that we're using technology and AI and creating a sports ecosystem around the stadium or the arena that all help diversify the revenue streams and help create opportunities for the models to be more attractive in terms of not only looking at game day, but having a facility that can be used year-round and having a community or a smaller city around that stadium or arena are some of the factors that clients consider.

Allison Nathan: Talk to us a little bit more about that technology angle because it is really transforming the experience of fans. What does that look like? Give us some examples of what has evolved.

Nicole Pullen Ross: Yeah. It really ranges. Some of it is athlete immersion, right? And so it's not just about how the athlete performs during the game, but it's all the branding around the athlete. It's the engagement. It's the ability for fans to feel connected in a way that technology allows in a much more impactful way.

It's walking into an arena and the arena recognizing that the restaurant choice that you have takes you through a certain gate and that your order shows up at your seat.

And so that technology and that AI infusion allows for that fan experience to really feel personalized and it allows for the engagement with the athletes to improve as well. Ultimately, every investor in a sports team is most interested in winning, and so all of the investment that they can make that will help the team become more valuable allows them to invest more in their players and increase their opportunity for winning, which was a constant reminder in all the conversations that we had.

Allison Nathan: Nicole, correct me if I'm wrong, but most of our conversation up to now has been about men's sports teams. Women's sports teams are in a very different position, even though they are so much in focus, there's so much buzz about women's teams right now. But most of them still play in rented venues and don't have a permanent home. How important is having that permanent venue to the growth of women's sports?

Nicole Pullen Ross: It's a very big factor and it is also a driver of the valuation growth that we've seen. There's no better example than what is happening in the WNBA right now. The Valkyries are the most highly valued WNBA team at $850 million. And the Atlanta Dream are the least valued team, ranked number 13 at $280 million, I believe is the valuation there.

And one of the factors that contributes to that valuation is the ability to have a permanent facility, and we're seeing this play out real time with the Atlanta Dream and all of the conversations that are happening around where they will be able to play. They now have I think there were 51 games that had a million viewers or more, and so there is an attraction.

Fans want to see and be part of that experience. But the Atlanta Dream plays in a facility that I think holds 3,500 fans. And the expectation, at least what I've read publicly, is that they will hope to play in the main arena, which I think holds 17,000 or so. And so watching that enthusiasm, having surpassed that phase of growth where you kind of need to ramp into a broader stadium, is one of the things that I think will continue to contribute to valuations. And having that permanency is a meaningful factor for sure.

Allison Nathan: What would make achieving that attractive to investors to really draw in the capital?

Nicole Pullen Ross: I think that's a bit of what we're seeing. We did a survey of our family office clients, and one of the top items on their list was investing in sports. And yes, there was the anchor of NFL or men's major leagues, but there was also this broader ecosystem. And so the value of having the real estate investment, the value of investing in the technology, investing in the ability to have exposure to gaming and the betting ecosystem. All of those factors I think are part of the calculation in terms of how you think about not only the permanency of the facility, but also all of the connected business opportunities in the ecosystem.

Allison Nathan: Let's spend a moment on college sports. As I mentioned at the start, there's been a landmark multi-billion-dollar settlement. It's changing how athletes are getting paid. But what does the settlement do? Walk us through it, and what will that really mean for athletes and schools?

Nicole Pullen Ross: Yes, I appreciate the question because it's a topic that we're hearing a lot of interest in. And so as we dig in, we are talking to investors who have spent more time on the college space. And it strikes me, and I didn't realize this several years ago, but college football is the second-largest commercial sport in the US behind football. And so, if you kind of grew up at a southern school or sone of these huge schools, you kind of know that. You've lived that.

Allison Nathan: I believe that. My household Saturdays are very dedicated to college football.

Nicole Pullen Ross: It's extraordinary. It's extraordinary. And so, it's had a tremendous transformative impact on what's happening in the space. And so now that the athletes themselves have the ability to earn an income through name, image, and likeness, the colleges are becoming much more competitive and looking a lot more like a major league team in terms of how they are looking to raise capital to support not only the growth of their current team or to fund their current team, but to fund the growth as well.

And so we're seeing investors think creatively about how they can play a role in that financing process. And so there are examples of private equity firms offering a line of credit for growth for some of those large schools, and a lot of discussion around how there can be a process in place to help fund that growth.

I think it's going to be an interesting few years to see how this all evolves, and there is lots of debate on what the right answer is or isn't, but clear that there will continue to be investment in the space and that the NIL change will have a certainly have a long-term impact.

Allison Nathan: Relatedly, it feels that some of these schools are recognizing that they actually need to have a successful football program or sports program to achieve the rankings and the success they want as a school. It's really a very interesting dynamic. Lastly, let me ask where you see opportunities for investors that are interested in gaining exposure to the business of sports right now.

Nicole Pullen Ross: Clients are answering that question in a variety of ways. They're starting to think about opportunities outside of the US—international expansion.

If you look at any of the major leagues, you're seeing that. You see the NFL playing nine games this season in Europe. You see the NBA looking for opportunities to expand outside of the US as well, and having an increasingly global footprint, both in terms of the teams as well as their media rights strategies.

And so there is this exploration of where you can see more meaningful growth, and that's taking some clients outside of the US, whether it's looking at those major leagues or increasingly trying to figure out ways to have exposure to European football, which continues to be a great opportunity for growth.

And we're seeing this trend that is fueled by things like F1, et cetera, where investors are trying to determine where they can get into a process where there's still meaningful upside potential. And so I think that's taking folks to global opportunities, a lot of interest in women's sports, and then emerging leagues as well, whether it be really creative teams or leagues like what Unrivaled has built, or opportunities around rugby or flag football or whatever the emerging sport might be, where investors are saying, "Okay, I really want growth equity sort of return versus kind of longer term buyout return in the space."

And depending on your view and how you think about risk, longevity, passion, return, et cetera, it takes you to an investment horizon and a scope of investments that is pretty broad with the obviously related amount of risk and return along that line across the spectrum.

Allison Nathan: Let me ask actually a last clarifying question, because when we say client here we're talking about wealthy individuals, we're talking about institutions. Ultimately though, what about regular people who love sports, want to be involved in sports. Are there ways to gain exposure for those clients?

Nicole Pullen Ross: Yes. There are definitely funds that offer broad exposure. There are a few publicly traded teams that you can buy a share in through an exchange, and there's been some activity around some of those names as well. And so I think this broadening of investment reach is not just available to those categories of investors that have traditionally had exposure, but we do see the trend increasing where the access to investments is becoming more broadly available at certainly lower levels than having to write a multi-hundred million or billion dollar check or finance an investment in that way. And so we're certainly seeing much more activity and opportunity broadly speaking.

Allison Nathan: Right. So more opportunity and more access.

Nicole Pullen Ross: More access.

Allison Nathan: Thanks so much for joining

Nicole Pullen Ross: A pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Allison Nathan: This episode of Goldman Sachs Exchanges was recorded on Tuesday, October 27th, 2026. If you enjoyed the show, we hope you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a rating and a comment. I'm Allison Nathan. Thanks for listening.