Eli Manning has ruled out a minority stake in the New York Giants for now. He explained conflicts between his current roles as the reason, along with financial burdens. In addition to $250 million-plus in salary during his remarkable run as the Giants QB, Manning has a huge endorsement stream. He said that the costs of ownership are out of his price range.
The former NFL quarterback announced his decision just a day after the NFL’s historic approval. Previously, private equity firms were capped at investing a maximum of 5% in teams. Manning acknowledged that even a small stake in the Giants, currently valued at around $10 billion, would be prohibitively expensive. As he put it, “A 1% stake worth $10 billion is a huge number,” underscoring the financial difficulties at play.
Manning’s financial ventures extend beyond football. He founded Ten Till Productions, an award-winning, mission-driven production company. In addition to that, he collaborates with others at Brand Velocity Group, a private equity firm. Furthermore, he’s one half of ESPN’s ManningCast with his brother Peyton Manning, a separate (and more fun) ESPN broadcast of the Monday Night Football games.
Yet, Manning knew that chasing after an ownership role would disrupt his new endeavors. He said he was worried it would eat into his day job and poison the well on some of his relationships within the organization. Then here’s the kicker — “I wasn’t able to have conversations with the players that I coached in the Pro Bowl. To do that would’ve jeopardized my day job,” he noted.
Though pulling out of the ownership bid, Manning has decided he is not done with the Giants. While he plans to remain deeply engaged with the team and is committed to seeing it prosper long-term, the Mara family has owned the franchise since 1925, and the Tisch family became owners within the franchise in 1991. This franchise is still near and dear to Manning’s heart.
Manning just announced that he’s not pursuing partial ownership of any other NFL team – so no surprise on that front. His priorities now are still on making a great impact inside the Giants organization while dealing with the challenges of balancing his many professional endeavors.