# Minority Stake in Pro Team? What does that get you? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 1, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467 "2016-08-01T15:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/1 "2016-08-01T15:03:22Z")
Word on the street is that The Dallas Mavericks in-the-news-right-now-owner is only the majority owner, and that minority shares are held by the two previous owners (perhaps 5% each). What is the purpose of keeping 5% of the ‘ownership’? I presume it is stock. I would imagine the previous owners had to take less of a buying price in order to keep that 5%, which in turn gives them no chance of running the Franchise as they will be outvoted. Free tickets? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/2 "2016-08-01T15:10:19Z")
I assume they think that there’s a chance that the Dallas Mavericks may spike up in value in the future and they’d like to have a piece of that potential profit. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/3 "2016-08-01T15:21:40Z")
Profits? The answer to just about any question that starts with ‘Why do they…’ is money. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/4 "2016-08-01T15:36:08Z")
Ego. The money is only secondary. They like to be able to say they own the team. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/5 "2016-08-01T15:46:50Z")
Moved to the Game Room. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/6 "2016-08-01T17:56:01Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Ego. > > The money is only secondary. They like to be able to say they own the team. This is really the answer. You get to say you own part of the team, sit in the owners box, get a ring when you win championships. Sure you don’t control but neither do most smart owners you hire people to run the business and then write checks ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/7 "2016-08-01T18:31:20Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Profits? > > The answer to just about any question that starts with ‘Why do they…’ is money. This. George W. Bush purchased a 2% share in the Texas Rangers for $606,000 in 1989. When the Rangers were sold in 1998, he received nearly $15 million on that initial investment. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/8 "2016-08-01T19:15:22Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > This. George W. Bush purchased a 2% share in the Texas Rangers for $606,000 in 1989. When the Rangers were sold in 1998, he received nearly $15 million on that initial investment. Pretty sweet deal that one. Bush was the “managing general partner” of the Rangers even though he had a comparatively tiny share compared to the other folks you’ve never heard of. Name trumps skin in the game in that case. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/9 "2016-08-01T20:45:24Z")
Probably depends a lot on the majority partner. As one of the Yankees limited partners once said: > [@](#): > > “There is nothing quite so limited as being a limited partner of George Steinbrenner’s” > **[Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner Dead at 80](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yankees-owner-george-steinbrenner-dead-at-80/)** > > Team Says Legendary Owner Died following Massive Heart Attack in Fla. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/10 "2016-08-02T15:09:08Z")
For the owner’s box? My daughter-in-law was the private secretary of a Microsoft VP who was also a minority owner of the Mariners. We all (my wife, son, DIL, and me) watched a game from his owner’s box one day–free. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/11 "2016-08-02T15:37:07Z")
Perhaps they’re hoping to be the next [Spirits of St. Louis.](http://www.dailyspeculations.com/dan/deals.html) > [@](#): > > In exchange for the Spirits’ accepting that they would not be included in the merger, the four admitted teams agreed to pay the Spirits $2,200,000 in cash ($800,000 less than Kentucky), but with the further agreement that the Spirits’ owners would receive 1/7 of each admitted team’s share of NBA revenues from national television contracts. (The 1/7 share was based on the fact that, prior to the merger, the Spirits were one of seven remaining ABA teams.) Thus the Spirits’ owners would receive a total of 4/7 of a share of NBA network television revenues. For how long a period would they continue to share in these television revenues? In the legal language of the agreement, “in perpetuity.” In other words, forever. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/12 "2016-08-03T00:52:37Z")
As a (very) minority owner of the Green Bay Packers, I get: - A printed certificate of my one share of stock - An annual proxy vote ballot for the team’s Board of Directors - The right to attend the annual shareholders’ meeting (held at Lambeau; I’ve never attended, as I live out of state) - Access to purchasing “Team Owner” merchandise from the Packer Pro Shop I consider it to be my $250 souvenir, and the right to yell at the TV when my employees are under-performing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minority-stake-in-pro-team-what-does-that-get-you/761467/13 "2016-08-03T06:35:41Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I assume they think that there’s a chance that the Dallas Mavericks may spike up in value in the future and they’d like to have a piece of that potential profit. Lets say you bought a 5% stake in Mavs for $5 million when they were valued at $100,000,000. I would imagine that when its time for Mark Cuban to sell in about 15-20 years, the team will be worth $2 billion. $1.9 billion x 5%=$95 million on a $5 million investment. Plus the free tickets and merchandise. Thats what a minority stake in the right team gets you, and its pretty nice even with the discount factor.