What Does It Take to Be the Owner of an NFL Franchise?

July 2, 2013   ·   Gary Davenport   ·   Jump to comments

As hobbies go, there aren't many more expensive than owning an NFL team.
Of course, for some owners, it's much more than a hobby. Some teams have been in the hands of the same family for decades, purchased many years ago for amounts so paltry that it makes their current value all the more staggering.
However, for owners that purchased their teams more recently, such as Jimmy Haslam of the Cleveland Browns, the investment is enormous.
That made it all the more surprising last week when The Wall Street Journal (via Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer) reported that Haslam's Pilot Flying J company, which operates gas stations and truck stops across America, has a staggering $4 billion in debt.
Wait, what?
How does a guy whose company has $4 billion in debt afford an NFL team? What exactly does it take to own an NFL team?
Well, to start with, it takes somewhere between 100 bucks and over a billion dollars, depending on when you bought the team.
As the chart a...

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