The following are sale prices of North American professional football teams (excluding the NFL), either published in the media or provided by sources with direct knowledge of the transactions. If you would like to know our source for a particular transaction, contact us and we’ll be happy to share, unless the information was provided on background by an industry source.
As with all business numbers in sports, understand that these figures are occasionally misrepresented by owners or obscured by faulty memories. Prices may represent the price of a controlling interest in a team, but not 100% of the shares. In a few cases, we have used the less than (<), greater than (>) and estimated (~) symbols to indicate partial information gleaned about a sale.
Arena Football League
Expansion fees:
- 1990 – Albany Firebirds – $125,000 (Joseph O’Hara & Glenn Mazula)
- 1990 – Dallas Texans – $125,000 (Lanier Richey)
- 1993 – Milwaukee Mustangs – $250,000 (Andrew Vallozzi)
- 1998 – Los Angeles Avengers – $5.0 million (Casey Wasserman)
- 2003 – Austin Wranglers – $16.2 million (Greg Feste, et al.)
- 2004 – Utah Blaze – $18.0 million (John Garff, Robert Garff & Brett Hopkins)
- 2005 – Kansas City Brigade – $18.0 million (Tyler Prochnow, Chris Likens, et al.)
Sales of existing franchises:
- 1994 – Tampa Bay Storm – $477,000 (Bob Gries to Peter “Woody” Kern)
- 1995 – Connecticut Coyotes – $750,000 (Connecticut Development Auth. to Ben Morris & Scott Gerard)
- 1995 – Las Vegas Sting – $1.0 million (? to Roy Englebrecht, C. David Baker et al.)
- 1996 – Orlando Predators – $2.3 million (Donald Dizney, et al. to William G. Meris, et al.)
- 2000 – Iowa Barnstormers – $7.0 million (Jim Foster to Charles Wang, Russ Artzt & Sanjay Kumar)
- 2000 – New England Sea Wolves – $7.0 million (Madison Sq. Garden Corp. to Rogers Communications, et al.)
- 2001 – Nashville Kats – $12.0 million (Mark Bloom to Virgil Williams et al.)
- 2007 – Tampa Bay Storm – $18.8 million (Peter “Woody” Kern to Dr. Robert Nucci)
- 2008 – New York Dragons – ~$12.0 million (Charles Wang to Steven Silva)
Canadian Football League
Expansion fees:
- 1994 – Baltimore CFL Colts/Stallions – $3.0 million (James Speros)
- 1993 – Las Vegas Posse – $3.0 million (Nick Mileti, Marshall Geller & Glenn Golenberg)
Sales of existing franchises:
- 1969 – Ottawa Rough Riders – $750,000 (? to David Loeb)
- 1977 – Ottawa Rough Riders – $1.5 million (David Loeb to Allan Waters)
- 1981 – Montreal Alouettes – $3.1 million (Sam Berger to Nelson Skalbania)
- 1987 – Ottawa Rough Riders – $1.00 (Allan Waters to group of 27 community investors)
- 1989 – Hamilton Tiger-Cats – $2.00 (Harold Ballard to David Braley)
- 1991 – Ottawa Rough Riders – $1.00 (CFL to Bernie & Lonie Glierbman)
- 1991 – Toronto Argonauts – $5.0 million (Harry Ornest to Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky & John Candy)
- 1994 – Toronto Argonauts – $6.5 million CDN (Bruce McNall, et al. to The Sports Network)
United States Football League (1983-1985)
Expansion fees:
- 1983 – Jacksonville Bulls – $6.0 million (Fred Bullard)
- 1983 – Memphis Showboats – $6.0 million (Logan Young)
- 1983 – Pittsburgh Maulers – $6.0 million (Edward DeBartolo Sr.)
- 1983 – San Antonio Gunslingers – $6.0 million (Clinton Manges)
- 1983 – San Diego (became Oklahoma Outlaws) – $6.0 million (William Tatham Sr. & William Tatham Jr.)
Sales of existing franchises:
- 1983 – Arizona Wranglers – $7.0 million (Jim Joseph to Dr. Edward Diethrich)
- 1983 – Boston Breakers – $8.0 million (George Matthews et al. to Joseph Canizaro)
- 1983 – Chicago Blitz – $7.2 million (Dr. Edward Diethrich to Dr. James Hoffman)
- 1984 – Denver Gold – $10.0 million (Ron Blanding to Douglas Spedding et al.)
World Football League (1974-1975)
Original Franchise Fees:
- 1973 – Chicago Fire – $0 (Nick Mileti)
- 1973 – Memphis/Houston Texans – $0 (Steve Arnold)
- 1973 – New York Stars – $0 (Bob Schmertz)
- 1973 – Philadelphia Bell – $0 (Gary Davidson)
- 1973 – Toronto Northmen/Memphis Southmen – $0 (John Bassett)
- 1974 – Jacksonville Sharks – $650,000 (Fran Monaco)
Sales of Existing Franchises:
- 1973 – Chicago Fire – $440,000 (Nick Mileti to Thomas Origer)
- 1974 – Philadelphia Bell – $690,000 (Gary Davidson to John B. Kelly, John Bosacco, et al.)
World League of American Football
Original franchise fees:
- 1990 – San Antonio Riders – $10.0 million (Larry Benson, et al.)
