List of NFL franchise owners

The following is a list of current National Football League franchise owners.

Terry Pegula, co-owner of the Buffalo Bills.
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.
Clark Hunt, chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Zygi Wilf, majority owner of the Minnesota Vikings.
Franchise Owner Year
acquired
Arizona CardinalsUnited States Bill Bidwill1962
Atlanta FalconsUnited States Arthur Blank†12004
Baltimore RavensUnited States Steve Bisciotti†12004
Buffalo BillsSouth KoreaUnited States Kim and United States Terry Pegula2014
Carolina PanthersUnited States David Tepper12018
Chicago BearsUnited States Virginia Halas McCaskey†‡31983
Cincinnati BengalsUnited States Mike Brown‡31991
Cleveland BrownsUnited States Jimmy Haslam2012
Dallas CowboysUnited States Jerry Jones1989
Denver BroncosUnited States Pat Bowlen†6 (Bowlen Family Trust)1984
Detroit LionsUnited States Martha Ford†[1]2014
Green Bay PackersUnited States Green Bay Packers, Inc.51923
Houston TexansUnited States Robert C. McNair†21999
Indianapolis ColtsUnited States Jim Irsay‡1997
Jacksonville JaguarsPakistanUnited States Shahid Khan2012
Kansas City ChiefsUnited States Clark Hunt and siblings‡32006
Los Angeles ChargersUnited States Alex Spanos† and family1,61984
Los Angeles RamsUnited States Stan Kroenke12010
Miami DolphinsUnited States Stephen M. Ross†2008
Minnesota VikingsGermanyUnited States Zygi Wilf†2005
New England PatriotsUnited States Robert Kraft1994
New Orleans SaintsUnited States Gayle Benson2018
New York GiantsUnited States John Mara (50%)4
United States Steve Tisch (50%)		2005
New York JetsUnited States Robert Wood Johnson IV6 and Christopher Wold Johnson‡2000
Oakland RaidersUnited States Carol and Mark Davis (mother and son)†‡2011
Philadelphia EaglesUnited States Jeffrey Lurie and Christina Weiss Lurie1994
Pittsburgh SteelersUnited States Art Rooney II2,4 (60%) and family (12%)2,3,42017
San Francisco 49ersUnited States Jed York‡12009
Seattle SeahawksUnited States Paul Allen1997
Tampa Bay BuccaneersUnited States Bryan Glazer and siblings‡2014
Tennessee TitansUnited States Amy Adams Strunk 32013
Washington RedskinsUnited States Dan Snyder†1999

† Majority or plurality owner, rather than outright owner.
‡ Family ownership of club has been passed on/split by descendant(s) of previous owner.

Benson, Bidwill, McCaskey, Brown, Ford, Irsay, Hunt, Mara, Davis, Rooney, Glazer, Smith, York, and Adams-Strunk represent ownership that has been longer than year listed, as teams have been owned by their families longer than listed.

1 Owner held stake prior to this date.
2 Original owner of franchise.
3 Child/heir of original owner of franchise.
4 Child/heir of heir of original owner of franchise.
5 Public corporation with a grandfathered exception to current NFL ownership rules. The team is governed by a Board of Directors, and Mark H. Murphy represents the team as President and CEO.
6 This owner is not active in day-to-day operations.

  • Kansas City Chiefs: Clark Hunt, one of four co-owning siblings, represents the team in league affairs.
  • New York Jets: Christopher Johnson is acting owner due to Robert's appointment as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
  • Tampa Bay Buccanners: Bryan Glazer represents the four co-owning siblings, including Edward Glazer, Joel Glazer and Darcie Kassewitz.
  • Tennessee Titans: Amy Strunk represents the five co-owning siblings -- two sisters (Smith), and the widow of their brother (Lewis), and his sons (the Adams brothers), all the children of founding owner Bud Adams.

Ownership restrictions

The NFL forbids religious groups, governments, and non-profit organizations owning a team. The NFL forbids ownership groups of over 24 people or any publicly traded corporations from purchasing NFL teams; one team, the Green Bay Packers, is exempt from this under a grandfather clause and is owned by shareholders. The Houston Texans are also grandfathered in for their home county–the Harris County, Texas government–which owns 5% of the team, as the rule forbidding governments from owning a team became effective in 2007. The NFL's constitution also forbids its owners from owning any other professional football teams, except for Arena Football League teams located in the NFL team's home market. In addition, the controlling owners of NFL teams are only permitted to own major league baseball, basketball and hockey teams if they are in the NFL team's home market, or are not located in other NFL cities.[2] (Stan Kroenke, who owned hockey and basketball teams in Denver, was nonetheless unanimously allowed to buy the then-St. Louis Rams in 2010 and hold on to his Denver assets until 2015, and even then the Denver assets were transferred to his wife Ann.)[3] Soccer has been exempt from these restrictions since 1982, when the league lost a lawsuit challenging them filed by the original NASL stemming from the investments of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Elizabeth Robbie, the wife of Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie in NASL teams;[4] as a result, NFL owners have owned teams in MLS in other NFL markets.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/10/martha-ford-inherits-the-lions-bill-ford-jr-remains-vice-chairman/
  2. ↑ "Constitution and Bylaws of the National Football League" (PDF). National Football League. 2006.
  3. ↑ "NFL owners let Kroenke keep Rams; transfer Nuggets, Avalanche to his wife". Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  4. ↑ North American Soccer League v. National Football League, 670 F.2d 1249 (2d Cir. 1982).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.