The NFL, long seen as a boys club, is becoming a women’s club in the ownership ranks. 

After the recent death of Colts owner Jim Irsay, who left the operation of the team to his daughters Kalen Jackson, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, and Casey Foyt—all hold the equal title of vice chair/owner—at least 12 of the total 32 NFL teams now count women as controlling or significantly active owners.

Those teams are the Colts, 49ers, Chiefs, Raiders, Browns, Bills, Buccaneers, Titans, Saints, Seahawks, Lions, and Broncos.

(Under NFL rules, there must be one controlling owner, which is the person who votes on things like rule changes, although the league does not disclose that list. Families that control teams must collectively own 30% of the club.)

That’s not to mention other teams with women who are deeply involved in organizations—like Charlotte Jones with the Cowboys and Katie Blackburn with the Bengals—or the increasingly diverse slate of NFL minority owners or limited partners (LPs), a list that has grown significantly since owners in 2022 issued a joint statement nodding to the “important goal of increasing diversity among ownership.” 

Among the 30 new limited partners added across eight teams since 2024, 18—or 60%—are people of color, women, or both, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy tells Front Office Sports. 

Notable female minority owners include Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments, who is part of the Broncos ownership group; Theresia Gouw of Acrew Capital, who is a minority owner in the Bills; and retired Olympic medal-winning American gymnast Dominique Dawes, who owns a piece of the Falcons.

“There are more women in ownership at every level than ever before,” McCarthy tells FOS.

How Things Started

The NFL launched in 1920 and didn’t have its first female owner until 1947, when Violet Bidwill took over the then–Chicago Cardinals following the death of her husband, Charles Bidwill. She quickly became the first female NFL owner with a championship under her belt when the Cardinals won the 1947 NFL Championship Game, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 28–21 (the first “Super Bowl” wasn’t until 1967, and it was only referred to as the Super Bowl after the fact).

The next female owner didn’t arrive until 1983, when Virginia Halas McCaskey took over the Bears following the death of her father, George Halas. McCaskey owned the Bears until she passed away in February of this year at the age of 102.

San Francisco 49ers

The contemporary guard of female owners began taking shape in 2001, when Denise DeBartolo York assumed control of the 49ers after her brother, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., was caught up in a gambling fraud probe. Denise, her husband, John York, and their son Jed York (who is CEO of the team) recently welcomed new minority owners, announcing in May a total 6% investment from three Bay Area families. The 49ers were reportedly valued at $8.5 billion in that deal. Edward DeBartolo Sr. purchased the team in 1977 for $13 million.

Kansas City Chiefs

Sharron Hunt is one of four siblings who are co-majority owners of the Chiefs. The team was passed down to them in 2005. Lamar Hunt Sr. founded the team in 1959, which has seen significant success in recent years (three Super Bowls since 2020). The Chiefs have a $4.85 billion valuation, according to Forbes.

Las Vegas Raiders

In 2011, Carol Davis and her son, Mark Davis, assumed control of the then–Oakland Raiders after Al Davis’s death. Al originally bought a 10% stake for $18,500 in 1966 and amassed additional shares over the years. The team, which moved to Las Vegas in 2020, is currently 47%-owned by Carol and Mark and is valued at $6.7 billion.

For more on all the NFL teams that count women as controlling or significantly active owners, read the rest of Ben Horney’s story here.

It’s now the official beginning of the end for one of the most influential team owners in MLB history. 

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has struck a multistage equity deal with Justin Ishbia that will see majority control of the franchise transfer no earlier than 2029. After 2034, when Reinsdorf would be 98, an option he holds to sell the controlling interest becomes Ishbia’s—who will also involve his brother, Suns and Mercury owner Mat Ishbia, and his father, Jeff Ishbia, in the deal that was months in development.

While it’s been long expected that Reinsdorf would soon settle the future ownership path of the White Sox, the agreement is nonetheless a massive development involving one of the longest-tenured and most impactful members of MLB ownership. 

Reinsdorf first acquired the White Sox with his business partner, the late Eddie Einhorn, in early 1981 in a deal worth about $20 million. The franchise is now estimated to be worth $2 billion, the 16th highest in the league.

In the four-plus decades since first arriving in baseball, Reinsdorf has played a major role in developing many of MLB’s current financial structures, including revenue-sharing. 

More to Do

There’s plenty of unfinished business for Reinsdorf in the years he has left leading the White Sox. The club’s effort to build a new ballpark at The 78, an undeveloped parcel near Chicago’s South Loop, has stalled amid lawmaker resistance, and most recently, the Fire of Major League Soccer have unveiled their own plans to build a privately funded stadium at The 78.

Reinsdorf is also looking to further develop the Chicago Sports Network, the regional sports network he created in partnership with Tennessee-based Standard Media and the Wirtz family that owns the NHL’s Blackhawks. After nearly nine months of operation, CHSN is at last nearing a crucial carriage deal with Comcast, the dominant cable operator in the Chicago area. 

With another new MLB commissioner expected in early 2029, when Rob Manfred intends to retire, Reinsdorf again figures to be a key player in the process to select the league’s next leader. MLB is also looking to implement a more centralized media strategy in 2028, when all of its national-level rights agreements expire. 

“As it relates to the next commissioner and the media rights, he’s definitely going to be heavily involved,” Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd. and a longtime sports industry consultant, tells Front Office Sports. “On the stadium, I would expect him to defer more to Ishbia.”

• A Wrexham AFC stake valuing the club at as much as £350 million ($475 million) may be up for grabs, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The team, which famously counts actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as investors, is just one level away from the Premier League after securing its third consecutive promotion in April. The potential stake comes about four years after Reynolds and McElhenney completed their roughly $2.5 million deal for the club. If the stake sale goes through at the valuation being reported, it would represent an almost 19,000% increase over the duo’s original investment. Wrexham is working with an investment bank to assess investor appetite, the report said. Discussions are preliminary, and the idea of selling a stake in the club is meant to provide a capital infusion to help it compete in the second-tier EFL Championship. The report did not mention who would be selling the stake. Wrexham didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
• NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning has joined the Denver NWSL ownership group, the club announced Tuesday. The size of his investment was not disclosed, and a representative for Manning could not immediately be reached. In the announcement, Manning said he is “proud to support the growth of women’s sports and excited to help build a club that our city and our state can rally behind.” A Denver group led by future controlling owner Robert Cohen, CEO of IMA Financial Group, was awarded the 16th NWSL franchise in January with a record $110 million expansion fee.
• Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds are the latest celebrities to enter competitive sail racing league SailGP. A group led by those two was announced Thursday as the new owner of the rebranded Bonds Flying Roos team. The team was previously known as the Flying Roos, but now have Bonds added to the front due to a sponsorship with Australian apparel brand Bonds. The team will sail in the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix—the sixth race of the 2025 season—which will be held this weekend, June 7–8. SailGP, which also counts actress Anne Hathaway among its celebrity owners, recently announced that users of sportsbook operators, including DraftKings in the U.S. and Bet365 internationally, can bet on its races.
• Pick-Roll, an app that lets users schedule pickup basketball games, has raised 500,000 euros ($571,000) from investors and is adding former No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Andrea Bargnani as a shareholder and partner, the company tells Front Office Sports. Bargnani’s role will include developing business-to-business initiatives, building relationships with institutional partners, and even participating in flagship events the company is planning. The app, which launched in 2020, has 143,000 registered users, most of which are based in Europe. But the company says it has only just started to focus on expansion in the U.S. The Italy-based company expects to launch a larger funding round soon, though no exact time frame was disclosed.