The Cleveland Browns’ ownership structure has changed drastically ever since Jimmy Haslam bought the franchise for $1 billion back in 2012. There are more entities now, more percentages, and fewer clear lines between who actually pulls the financial levers. For Cleveland, those shifts are about to increase, and this time the name attached to it already sits on two other NFL teams.

“NFL owners are expected to vote later today on the sale of 3% of the Cleveland Browns to the private equity firm Arctos,” NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported on X. “Arctos is one of the NFL-approved PE firms, and it already has a piece of Chargers and Bills.”

Arctos holds a roughly 10% stake in the Buffalo Bills, and an 8% stake in the Los Angeles Chargers. Apart from the NFL, their portfolio also spans major North American leagues. The firm has stakes in five NBA teams – Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Washington Wizards.

They also own stakes in at least 6 MLB teams that include the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and Boston Red Sox (via Fenway Sports Group). If this wasn’t enough, they also have stakes in the NHL (6 teams), and even holds a piece of the Liverpool F.C, who play in the English Premier League.

The NFL formally opened the door to this kind of investment in 2024, when the owners approved a resolution allowing select PE firms – Arctos, Ares Management, and Sixth Street Partners – to buy up to 10% non-controlling stakes in the franchises. That decision cleared the way for Arctos’ earlier stakes in the Bills and Chargers, and now the Browns could be the next to hand over a minority slice.

For the Browns, a 3% Arctos piece would be another step toward a more institutionalized equity structure. They had already tried to sell a minority stake to Hall of Famer Charles Woodson last year but couldn’t close the deal. With this Arctos deal, Jimmy Haslam could get roughly $192 million the sale, with the Browns’ total estimated value reported at around $6.4 billion.

Jimmy Haslam still remains in control of football operations, but this move lines up with their pattern of using outside capital to shore up the team’s financial position without giving in to a full-scale takeover.

That’s the Browns’ side of it; the other half of this story is the rule change that let a fund like Arctos buy into any NFL team in the first place, and now it changes the league dynamics.

Inside the NFL’s private equity plan

In August 2024, owners met in Eagan, Minnesota, and voted 31-1 to let approved private equity funds buy minority stakes in teams, with the Cincinnati Bengals the sole team voting against it. Under that policy, firms like Arctos, Ares, Sixth Street, and a consortium of Blackstone, Carlyle, CVC, Dynasty Equity and Ludis can buy between 3 to 10% of a club, as long as no team sells more than 10% in total, and no fund touches more than six teams. The funds must have at least $2 billion in committed capital, hold their position for a minimum of six years, and keep any single stake to no more than 20% of their fund capacity.

“We’ve been very deliberate on this private equity,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had said at the time. “I think it’s an access to capital that I think has been [of] interest to us for a long time. Other leagues are doing it. We’re doing it with a cap of 10%, so a much less significant position. I think it’s an appropriate thing, to give teams that liquidity.”

Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who chaired the committee that built the rules, called it “a very positive day for the league,” and said many clubs had struggled to tap equity financing for stadiums and other big projects under the old setup. He framed private equity as an extension of the limited-partner model teams already use, just with institutional money now allowed into the room. And Hunt wasn’t the only one who saw the upside, Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones came to a similar conclusion.

“To have a strong game, you have to have a strong financial underpinning,” Jones said. “You have to have availability of capital. And this is the type of thing that is good for the fans.”

On paper, the guardrails are tight. Along with the 10% stake cap, the controlling owner still has to keep at least 30% of ownership, and every fund’s stake is labeled as non-controlling, and no team can have more than 20 designated stakeholders. That’s the framework Jimmy Haslam is stepping into with Arctos – liquidity without giving up the keys, at least in how the league describes it.

The sales pitch from league voices is clear: this is about cash for stadiums, practice facilities, and upgrades, not about giving firms like Arctos a say on who plays quarterback (although the Browns could use some help with that.) But when the same PE shop can legally sit on up to six NFL cap tables at once, and already claims the right to invest across major North America sports leagues, it’s hard to argue this is just a minor line item for Cleveland.