I’m a numbers person, and I got curious about who actually owns the big Philadelphia teams, where did the owners make their money, and how much have these franchises grown in value over time? This page is my own visual summary of what I found. This is a personal project done for fun.
Note: franchise valuations are estimates, not audited financials. Still, they are great for spotting trends.
All values are in USD billions. Growth compares 2016 to 2025 using the sources listed at the bottom.
Minor investors listed only when publicly documented.
Controlling owner: Jeffrey Lurie (since 1994). Known for film and media ventures.
Lurie bought the team in 1994 and has remained the controlling owner. In recent years, the Eagles have also had minority stakes sold while control stayed with Lurie.
Principal owner: John Middleton (control person). Wealth largely tied to the Middleton tobacco business.
The Phillies are owned by an ownership group, but Middleton is the control person. This is a typical baseball setup: a dominant partner plus other investors behind the scenes.
Owners: Josh Harris and David Blitzer via HBSE. Money source: private equity and investing.
Harris and Blitzer are heavy hitters in finance and sports ownership. The NBA has seen major valuation expansion, and the 76ers reflect that trend pretty dramatically.
Owner: Comcast Spectacor. The Flyers are owned by Comcast Spectacor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast.
The Flyers are directly owned by Comcast Spectacor.
Ownership group: led by Jay Sugarman. Notable minority investor: Kevin Durant (publicly reported).
The Union are run by an ownership group led by Sugarman. The fun wrinkle is Kevin Durant's minority stake, which is one of those crossover sports-business moves I think is pretty interesting.
Note: logo shown is the 2015 crest — the current mark isn't available as a free SVG.
I tried to use a simple, consistent approach: compare 2016 valuations to 2025 valuations (or the closest widely cited public figure). Values are estimates and will vary by publisher, but the direction of travel is the interesting part.
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