Historically teams (in the US) have been owned by a single person. But today, a sports team acquisition involves a 10-figure transaction and possibly the const

Historically teams (in the US) have been owned by a single person. But today, a sports team acquisition involves a 10-figure transaction and possibly the construction of a stadium if there's a move, which could also be in the low 10-figures. There are not that many individuals who can afford to buy a team by themselves. That's why they form ownership groups with a lead investor to be the "owner" face of the team (and sometimes, they'll get big names as minority stakeholders to give them legitimacy). An example of this is when an ownership group bought the Miami Marlins [1]. [1] https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/boston-red-sox/derek-jeter-group-buys-miami-marlins-12-billion https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/boston-red-sox/derek-jeter-... One difference with sports teams is that some members of the ownership group do it for vanity/ego/pride as much as an investment opportunity. There's a lot of prestige in having ownership of a major sports franchise, not only because it's incredibly expensive but because the opportunity to purchase a stake is not common and the entire ownership group is subject to approval from all the other owners in the league. So you can't just buy a team, you have to be ok'd by all the other teams.