{"id":855717,"date":"2026-09-21T18:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855717\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T18:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:24:02","slug":"yankees-set-to-become-most-valuable-team-in-mlb-with-apollo-poised-to-take-major-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855717\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees set to become most valuable team in MLB with Apollo poised to take major stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees are nearing a deal<\/a> that would eventually hand a whopping 16% stake in the venerable franchise to private equity giant Apollo Global Management. The Steinbrenner family would relinquish a \u201cde minimis\u201d slice of its controlling equity, finalizing a transaction that will give the famed franchise a new, cash-rich partner, the Post has learned.<\/p>\n

The partnership structure makes Apollo the Yankee\u2019s biggest equity owner<\/a> after the Steinbrenner family, which will still own a bit more than 60% of the team. Apollo\u2019s $2.6 billion cash injection into Yankees involves both a debt and equity investment, and values the team at significantly more than $12 billion.<\/p>\n

New York Yankees\u2019 Aaron Judge poses for a photo with Hal Steinbrenner during a press conference at Yankee Stadium. Charles Wenzelberg\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Once the deal closes, possibly as early as this week, the Yankees will rank among the world\u2019s most valuable\u00a0sports organizations. According to projections by limited partners involved, the Yankees are the most valuable baseball franchise, now far surpassing\u00a0the Los Angeles Dodgers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal has been agreed to in principle by all the parties, but given the complex\u00a0nature of the purchase, could be delayed for somewhat longer, these people say. Details of the official terms of the Yankees new ownership structure have yet to be reported. It would end weeks of speculation into the details of the transaction, the outlines of which were disclosed last month with the Yankees\u2019 announcement\u00a0of a $2.6 billion investment from Apollo.<\/p>\n

The $2.6 billion cash injection from Apollo values the Bronx Bombers at over $12 billion, making them one of the world\u2019s most valuable sports organizations. LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The deal underscores the importance of Apollo to the future of the Yankees \u2014 including providing capital to buy players, pay down expensive debt, and provide a cash cushion in case of a baseball strike. Baseball, like most professional sports, has been increasingly\u00a0dominated by cash-rich Wall Street types either owning teams outright or through minority investments.\u00a0Al Tylis, who runs Apollo\u2019s sports-fund, will join the Yankee Global Enterprises\u2019 13-member board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Steinbrenner family will retain controlling interest in the Yankees above 60% but will sell what one person close to the deal says is a \u201cde minimis\u201d portion of its controlling stake of no more than 3%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal that took shape over the summer involved limited partners for the team looking to monetize their investments for estate planning, layered with the changing ownership dynamics of baseball and the need for the\u00a0Yankees to remain competitive\u00a0in seeking roster telent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hedge fund impresario Steve Cohen owns the Yankees crosstown rival, the New York Mets, and is worth an estimated $26 billion. With Cohen\u2019s backing, the Mets have a payroll of around $380 million, second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers are owned by Guggenheim Investment Group, an offshoot of the LA-based financial firm run by controlling partner Mark Walter.<\/p>\n

Walter, a long-time financial executive and CEO of Guggenheim has been under pressure to deal with a cash crunch involving his insurance business. He is in the process of selling his stake in the Lakers for $12.5 billion to venture capitalist Josh Kushner, and former Disney chief Bob Iger, who will own a smaller slug in the team and manage its business operations.<\/p>\n

New York Yankees\u2019 Austin Wells (28) celebrates with Ben Rice, right, after hitting a home run against the New York Mets during the third inning of an MLB baseball game Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in New York. Noah K. Murray for NY Post<\/p>\n

The impetus\u00a0of the Yankee\u2019s deal with Apollo was more prosaic; a group of limited partners wanted to cash out of their investments for estate planning purposes, and Apollo was looking for an anchor investment for its newly created sports fund, these sources say.<\/p>\n

Apollo, run by financier Marc Rowan, was a natural partner. His $1 trillion fund recently started a sports-targeted investment pool\u00a0 that has deployed $13 billion in capital\u00a0since inception but with no major anchor investment.\u00a0Leading the negotiations for the Yankees was team chairman Hal Steinbrenner, the youngest son of the legendary\u00a0owner George Steinbrenner, who cut the deal with Rowan and Tylis, these\u00a0people add.<\/p>\n

The firm\u2019s equity would appear to value the Yankees at\u00a0around\u00a0$12 billion, but that underestimates\u00a0the true worth of the franchise since it\u2019s a minority\u00a0stake and subject to so-called haircuts in valuation, sources say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no longer your father\u2019s baseball game with hedge fund, PE and corporate money\u00a0involved,\u201d said one major league baseball source. \u201cThe deal puts the Yankees on very firm footing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Yankees had no immediate comment; a press rep for Apollo had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Apollo\u2019s portion of the deal was closed on August\u00a011; the limited partners sale is now in its final stages. The structure of the deal involves Apollo paying cash upfront to buy an 8% stake of the\u00a0team immediately\u00a0and getting preferred stock for the other 8% that can be converted into pure equity in four years.\u00a0The cash will also\u00a0refinance holding company bank debt at significantly lower cost, these\u00a0people add.<\/p>\n

The PE giant will be owning the team\u00a0through Yankees Global Management,\u00a0an investment in the holding company that controls the Yankees as well as the Yes Network, and Legends Hospitality and the AC Milan soccer team.<\/p>\n

PE firms are currently barred from owning more than 15% of any team according to the\u00a0MLB rules, though the league is expected to waive the cap, MLB sources say.<\/p>\n

The deal would rank as among the largest private equity transactions involving a sports franchise, allowing the Yankees to tap into Apollo\u2019s nascent sports investment business, Apollo Sports Capital. The big PE firm\u2019s stake in the Yankees is by far its largest. Its other investments include a majority stake in Spanish football club, Atletico Madrid, and a stake\u00a0in Pickleball\u00a0Inc,, the holding company for professional pickleball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees are nearing a deal that would eventually hand a whopping 16% stake in the venerable franchise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[81622,28,363,369,1767,13806,99],"class_list":["post-855717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-apollo-global-management","tag-business","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-opinion","tag-private-equity-investments","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}