{"id":86870,"date":"2025-12-17T17:06:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86870\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T17:06:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:06:29","slug":"akron-rubberducks-jacksonville-jumbo-shrimp-owner-backed-by-arctos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86870\/","title":{"rendered":"Akron RubberDucks, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Owner Backed by Arctos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPrivate investment firm Arctos<\/a> owns minority stakes in some of the world\u2019s most famous sports teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Golden State Warriors, Buffalo Bills and soccer club Paris Saint-Germain. Now it\u2019s also tied to the Akron RubberDucks and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company is the anchor investor in Prospector Baseball Group, a recently launched investment platform eager to take over more minor league and independent baseball teams, which have become sought-after assets in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFinancial terms of the Arctos-PBG tie-up have not been announced. Arctos owns a significant stake in PBG, though the group has other investors as well. Founded by veteran sports executive John Abbamondi and tech entrepreneur\/investor Ben Boyer, PBG\u2019s first buy was the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball\u2019s Lancaster Stormers this fall.\u00a0It announced the acquisition of Akron and Jacksonville from Ken Babby last week at an undisclosed price.<\/p>\n

\n\tSilver Lake-backed Diamond Baseball Holdings has amassed a collection of 48 minor league teams after buying three Houston Astros affiliates last week. It reportedly is limited by an MLB<\/a>-imposed 50-team cap.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvenue Capital-backed OnDeck Partners, meanwhile, recently scooped up the Montgomery Biscuits and the Visalia Rawhide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBy owning multiple clubs, the investment groups can centralize certain functions, benefit from economies of scale and trade best practices internally. Minor league teams typically make the bulk of their revenue from ticketing, sponsorships and merchandise. The 120 MiLB teams collectively drew more than 30 million visitors in 2025, with gear sales\u00a0growing<\/a>\u00a0of late. Buyers often also see an opportunity to better utilize ballparks on non-gamedays. Teams have reportedly sold for $10 million to $100 million in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEverything starts with the quality of the market and the team\u2019s relationship in the market, and then the quality of the facility,\u201d Abbamondi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tArctos brings its connections throughout the sports industry and the data and experience it has collected while investing in teams and leagues throughout the world.\u00a0Its baseball investments also include<\/a> equity in the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox parent company Fenway Sports Group. Private capital group KKR is in talks to acquire Arctos,\u00a0Financial Times\u00a0reported earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a\u00a0value creation\u00a0platform here that is\u00a0dedicated to serving sports teams\u00a0in all of the revenue line items that matter,\u201d Arctos partner Alastair Seaman said. \u201cAnd while this is more of a local live entertainment business\u00a0and community asset\u00a0than it is a sports team, per se, a lot of those capabilities are going to be directly applicable to\u00a0the minor\u00a0leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeaman said Arctos\u2019 interest in minor league baseball<\/a> dates to its participation alongside Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadiv\u00e9 in the 2022\u00a0acquisition<\/a>\u00a0of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats and their home, Sutter Health Park, for a reported $90 million. Abbamondi said new leads have come from current team owners testing the market as well as outbound check-ins with clubs who have yet to express a desire to sell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBoyer previously said PBG could own up to 15 baseball teams, building on the three it has today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a chance we acquire more teams before Opening Day,\u201d Abbamondi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Private investment firm Arctos owns minority stakes in some of the world\u2019s most famous sports teams, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[47322,116,118,117,47323,3817,47324],"class_list":{"0":"post-86870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-arctos","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news","12":"tag-minor-league-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-private-equity"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}