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A recent report indicated that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund plans to expand the foray into sports it began by establishing the LIV golf tour and that news fueled further conversation about whether they could look to football as a place to invest money in the future.
The prospect of using the sovereign fund to invest in an NFL team came up in a question for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a Thursday appearance on CNBC. Goodell was asked if the NFL would consider a rule change that would allow for that kind of public ownership or investment in teams in the future.
“We haven’t made the move as other leagues have to any kind of public investment,” Goodell said. “It’s something we’ll contemplate at some point in time, but we really like our basic model now where we have private ownership. Those owners are in the meeting room, they’re part of the league and they’re part of our success.”
The LIV tour makes it clear that direct investment in existing teams or leagues isn’t the only path to investing in sports and the competition they created with that golf investment led to last month’s proposed merger with the PGA. Whether they will ever turn their attention to football remains to be seen, but it’s not likely to be the last time the topic comes up for Goodell and NFL ownership.