HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis has agreed in principle to sell 15 percent of the franchise, according to a league source. Silver Lake co-CEO and Endeavor board chairman Egon Durban and Discovery Land Company founder and chairman Michael Meldman have each bid separately to acquire equal 7.5 percent stakes in the Raiders, the source said.
The NFL finance committee has reviewed the terms of the transaction. The committee could bring the sale up for a vote among NFL owners at the league special league meeting from Dec. 10-11 in Irving, Texas. For Durban and Meldman’s bids to become official, at least 24 of the league’s 32 owners would need to approve them in a vote.
The agreement comes just over a month after Davis sold about 10.5 percent of the Raiders to former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management Tom Wagner and former NFL defensive lineman Richard Seymour. Brady and Wagner purchased stakes worth about 5.0 percent each while Seymour purchased a 0.5 percent stake.
Davis will remain the controlling owner of the Raiders even if Durban and Meldman’s bids are approved. If he wanted to, he could sell nearly all his stakes and still keep decision-making power. That’s because, as of 2022, the NFL dropped the minimum percentage of a team that a longstanding owner must control from five percent to one percent for teams with the same owner for at least 10 years. Davis has owned the team since his father Al died in 2011, so he would fall into that group.
Davis and a Raiders spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Athletic’s request for comment.
The reasons why Davis has been selling shares of the Raiders are multifaceted. Part of the appeal in bringing in Brady and Seymour is that they can help Davis make football decisions. Before buying into ownership, Seymour was on the Raiders’ hiring committee that led to the hiring of general manager Tom Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce this offseason.
Brady hasn’t had that type of formal involvement yet — he’s been busy working as a Fox analyst — but Davis said he could help the Raiders “select a quarterback in the future and potentially train him as well.” He plans to lean on Brady’s football knowledge and called it a “huge benefit to the organization.”
As for the transactions with Wagner, Durban and Meldman, the primary motivator appears to be Davis becoming more liquid. The value of the Raiders has skyrocketed since their relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas. Earlier this year, CNBC valued the franchise at $7.8 billion.
To be clear, that’s not the number that Davis will be paid based on because a valuation is based on the estimated price the Raiders would draw if Davis sold the entire stake. While the exact terms are unknown, Davis still raked in hundreds of millions of dollars by selling stakes in the franchise to Brady, Seymour, Wagner, Durban and Meldman collectively.
Something that could complicate Durban’s purchase is Endeavor, formerly known as William Morris Endeavor, has a sports agency arm that represents NFL players — and other athletes — called WME Sports. Durban owns an interest in WME Sports through Silver Lake, which owns part of Endeavor. NFL rules don’t allow individuals with an ownership stake to represent players and coaches, so Durban would need to divest his stake in WME Sports to buy into the Raiders. According to the Sports Business Journal, Durban has told the NFL finance committee that he’d make that happen within four months of the Raiders deal getting done.
Again, that’s all expected to get discussed at the NFL special league meeting next month. If things get hashed out, Davis and the Raiders will welcome more members to the ownership group.
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