S.F. Giants Selling Stake to Private Equity to Pay for Facility Upgrades

The Giants received a nine-figure cash infusion Monday, selling 10% of the team to private equity firm Sixth Street.

The New York Times first reported the deal.

Details of the stake, including what it valued the franchise at, were not made public, but Forbes valued the team at $3.8 billion at the start of the 2024 season. That ranked fifth among MLB teams. 

The team plans to use the money to upgrade its facilities, including the 25-year-old Oracle Park, its Arizona spring training complex, and the Mission Rock real estate development in San Francisco.

“This is our first significant investment in three decades,” Giants president Larry Baer said in a release. (The team had sold a stake to Buster Posey in 2022, but that was apparently not a “significant” part of the team. Posey took over baseball operations last year.)

Greg Johnson, the son of 92-year-old billionaire Charles Johnson, is the team’s designated control person, but the team has 35 owners, a conglomerate that includes real estate developer Scott Seligman and Arctos Partners, another private equity company.

The Giants ran one of the biggest payrolls in baseball in their dynasty years last decade but have slipped to the middle of the pack in recent years. Baer said the new money would not be spent on players.

“This is not about a stockpile for the next Aaron Judge,” Baer said, referring to the star San Francisco fruitlessly pursued in free agency two years ago. “This is about improvements to the ballpark, making big bets on San Francisco and the community around us, and having the firepower to take us into the next generation.”

In addition to Judge, the Giants have missed out on Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper in free agency and backed out of a 13-year deal with Carlos Correa over medical concerns.

The Giants are Sixth Street’s first MLB investment as the firm also has stakes in the San Antonio Spurs, soccer teams FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and a controlling share of Bay FC in the NWSL. 

Sixth Street was founded in 2009 and is based out of San Francisco. The firm’s assets total $100 billion.

MLB and Private Equity 

Baseball was relatively early to PE money.

It opened its ranks to firms in 2019, well before the NFL and a year before the NBA did so.

Under current MLB rules, a PE firm can invest up to 15% in a franchise with no restrictions on the number of teams it could hold a stake in. Teams can’t sell more than 30% of their shares to private equity. 

In 2020, NBA owners allowed PE to invest in teams, but they aren’t allowed to take controlling stakes. Unlike in MLB, PE firms are limited to having stakes in a maximum of five teams with a cap of 20%. 

The NHL allows private equity to own up to 20% of a team and teams to sell up to 30% to firms.

The NHL also requires a minimum investment of $20 million. PE companies can have a stake in up to five NHL teams. 

The NFL is the most recent U.S. league to allow PE investment. In 2024, the league approved eight PE firms to buy up to 10% of teams.

Other Known PE Stakes

The Giants already had investment from Arctos, which has a stake in a number of other MLB teams including the Red Sox (through parent company Fenway Sports Group), Dodgers, Cubs, Astros, and Padres. Fenway Sports Group also has an investment from RedBird Capital, and the Padres also have Ares Management as an investor in secured debt.

Editors’ note: RedBird Capital is the parent company of RedBird IMI, the majority owner of Front Office Sports.