49ers are selling part of the team at a record valuation. Here’s what it means

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Back in February, the Sports Business Journal reported that the 49ers were exploring the sale of a 10% stake in the team, at a valuation of $9 billion. On Thursday, Sportico reported that the 49ers are indeed following through with at least a portion of that plan.

Owner Jed York and his family have reached an agreement to sell about 6% of the 49ers to three Bay Area families, for around $510 million. The deals come at a team valuation of more than $8.5 billion, the highest ever for any sports team in a transaction.

To explain, this is Forbes’ estimate of the most valuable professional sports franchises:

These valuations haven’t been solidified in an actual transaction. Because the 49ers — which rank at No. 10 on Forbes’ list, at $6.8 billion — are set to sell more than 6% at a transaction valuation of more than $8.5 billion, it’ll break a record recently set by the Philadelphia Eagles, who sold to a pair of minority stakeholders at an $8.1 billion valuation.

The NFL is expected to approve the 49ers’ partial sale at its league meetings next week in Minnesota.

What’s in it for the 49ers?

Well, this is an efficient way to raise money in the professional sporting world, which features skyrocketing revenues and costs. Look no further than the huge contract the 49ers are negotiating with quarterback Brock Purdy. Beyond this 6% stake, if York and his family — who currently own 97% of the 49ers — sell another 4% to reach the 10% mark, they stand to raise $340 million more.

“If there’s an opportunity that makes sense, we would always explore that,” York said of a potential sale at the NFL owners’ meetings in April. “If we do, we would try to find the right people that would help bolster everything that we’re doing in and around the team — on the field, off the field — and just make sure that we had good partners that were with us.”

The Khosla, Deeter, and Griffith families are the ones purchasing stakes of the 49ers. Vinod Khosla is the cofounder of Sun Microsystems. Bryan Deeter is a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Will Griffith is a founding partner at Iconiq Growth. All three of those companies are headquartered in the Bay Area.

Sportico reports that this continues the trend of sales of sports stakes to wealthy individuals, as opposed to institutional funds. Assuming the NFL approves the transactions, the York family’s controlling stake of the 49ers would be reduced to 91%.

“It’s a big asset, and you have different family members that have different things that they want to do — in the team, around the team, outside of the team,” York said. “It’s a family asset allocation.”

• While we’re on the topic of finances, the 49ers have completed the priciest piece of business pertaining to their 2025 draft class. Per Aaron Wilson, first-round pick Mykel Williams has signed his rookie contract, which was pre-slotted at a fully guaranteed $24.9 million over four years. The 49ers will pay Williams a $14.8 million signing bonus.

There isn’t much wiggle room with rookie contracts, which are preset by the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s rookie wage scale. But because all first-round picks receive fully guaranteed deals, agents and teams sometimes haggle over offset language. That apparently wasn’t the case here, as the 49ers have signed Williams several days ahead of next week’s organized team activities (OTAs).

• About two weeks ago, the agency for D.J. Humphries reported that the former Pro Bowl tackle had agreed to terms with the 49ers. But NBC Sports Bay Area is reporting that Humphries’ deal with the 49ers was never finalized.

Just last week, the 49ers signed veteran offensive tackles Andre Dillard and Nicholas Petit-Frere. The team is eyeing all these players for its swing tackle competition, as the position to back up starting tackles Trent Williams and Colton McKivitz remains unsettled.