As soon as the NBA amended its bylaws in December to allow sovereign wealth funds to buy minority shares of teams — a decision rife with implications — it was always obvious there had to be an interested buyer.
Now we know the buyer and the seller, with the Qatar Investment Authority buying a roughly 5 percent stake in Wizards parent company Monumental Sports & Entertainment as part of a $4.05 billion deal, according to Sportico.
It is believed to be the first time the Qatari government has invested in U.S. sports.
Qatari Airways has paid handsomely to sponsor the lounge in Barclays Center, where the Nets play and the NBA Draft was held Thursday night.
Qatar’s royal family has three townhouses on the Upper East Side, including one bought for $41 million in 2017 just for their servants.
But their foray into NBA investing came in Washington, not New York.
“We allow funds to invest in teams, but not to control teams, not to influence teams,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on “The Dan Patrick Show” earlier this month. “So to own an NBA team, there has to be an individual with a certain percentage of the team to control it.”
The NBA limits sovereign wealth funds to buy up to 20 percent of teams.
Ted Leonsis is the founder, manager partner and CEO of Monumental Sports, which also owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics, as well as Capital One Arena and the NBA G League’s Capital City Go-Go.
But the change in the impact of the bylaw change surely won’t stop there.
With NBA team valuations increasing rapidly, this just widens the pool of potential investors — such as the Saudis.
Though Silver said last month that no Saudi-backed fund has attempted to invest in a league team yet, that day could be coming.
“When the Saudis invest in sports, it gets excessive attention,” Silver said. “Well, I don’t want to complain about that, because we want to get excessive attention. On the other hand, someone could go up there on the list. They are investors in some of our largest US companies. Some of the most famous brands have investments from them. And I also think it’s a double-edged sword.
“I hear the comments about sportswashing. On the other hand, you talk about it, others talk about it…In the same way, the World Cup — the Football World Cup, the Football World Cup — brought a huge amount of attention to Qatar. I think people are learning about these countries, learning about what’s happening in the world in ways they wouldn’t otherwise. So I think the media is doing their job.
“But… talking specifically about the NBA, where we’re such a global sport, I think people these days are a little too dismissive of the benefits that come from the commonality around sports. That with a sport like basketball — our finals are spread pretty much all over the world, the sport is played all over the world — it’s an opportunity to bring people together.”
