Patrick Mahomes Wants To Add A WNBA Team To His Growing Sports Portfolio
Patrick Mahomes Wants To Add A WNBA Team To His Growing Sports Portfolio
Patrick Mahomes already owns equity in teams across the MLB, MLS, NWSL, and Formula 1. Now, he wants to capitalize on the Caitlin Clark effect by bringing a WNBA team to Kansas City.
It’s no secret that Caitlin Clark’s WNBA arrival has propelled the league to new heights. Viewership, attendance, sponsorships, merchandise sales, media rights — no matter what metric you want to look at, the WNBA set a record in it this year.
The WNBA’s growth isn’t slowing down, either. The league recently signed a new $2.2 billion media rights deal that is worth 4-5x more than the previous deal. The regular season schedule will increase to 44 games per team starting next season, and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has already announced the launch of three expansion teams set to begin play in the next two years in Golden State, Toronto, and Portland.
This leaves one more expansion team up for grabs. And while the WNBA says 10 to 12 cities are vying for the league’s 16th franchise, including St. Louis, Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Denver, three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes wants to use his influence to bring a WNBA team to Kansas City, Missouri.
Mahomes and the ownership group of NWSL’s Kansas City Current (which Mahomes is a part-owner in) pitched the WNBA about buying an expansion team last week.
“We want to get basketball to Kansas City in general and the WNBA and the success that they’ve had this last season and these last few seasons, it’s kind of a no-brainer to try to get a WNBA team in Kansas City,” Mahomes told reporters after practice.
Mahomes and his partners must put together a bid worth more than $50 million to make the numbers work. However, the group’s pitch revolves around showcasing how they have turned the Kansas City Current into one of the NWSL’s premier franchises.
The Kansas City Current only began playing matches in 2021, but they have quickly become one of the league’s best ownership groups. That includes constructing the first-ever stadium built specifically for a professional women’s soccer team, and the Current now brings in more annual revenue than any other NWSL team ($36.3 million), according to Sportico.
This has caused the franchise valuation to skyrocket — the Current paid a $5 million expansion fee in 2020 but are now the league’s second most valuable team at $182 million — and they believe this model can be replicated through WNBA expansion.
“[The Kansas City Current are] going into the playoffs now, and you see the support that they have. So let’s try to get a WNBA team in here as well and kind of that same-type ownership group,” says Mahomes. “They’ve done the Current the right way, and I want to continue to work with them to take that next step and get a WNBA team here.”
The WNBA probably won’t announce the league’s next expansion team for another few months, and it’s no guarantee that Mahomes' star power will land Kansas City a team, as Kansas City would be the WNBA’s smallest TV market by a wide margin.
But more importantly, this speaks to Mahomes’ growing influence in Kansas City as the world’s only athlete to hold ownership stakes in an MLB, MLS, and NWSL team.
Back in 2020, Mahomes was on top of the world. He was just 24 years old at the time, but the Texas native had just won his first Super Bowl. Mahomes also had an MVP award, and he was already being compared to future hall-of-famer Tom Brady, so the Chiefs locked him down with a record-breaking 10-year extension worth $450 million.
This seemed like an absurd amount of money at the time because football is a violent sport, and the Chiefs were now handing Mahomes the largest contract in North American sports history. However, what it really did was give Mahomes long-term financial security and the Chiefs roster flexibility to win more championships.
And just four years later, that’s precisely what has happened. Mahomes unique contract has set the stage for a dynasty, with the Chiefs currently the betting favorite to become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls even though Mahomes is now the league’s 13th highest-paid quarterback, earning less than Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa, and Kirk Cousins.
This is the Tom Brady model. You sacrifice a little bit of money on the front end with the idea that the team will use the additional money to sign better players around you to help you win more championships. Those championships then make you incredibly popular, enabling you to earn significantly more through endorsements and post-career business opportunities than you would have if you hadn’t won championships.
It’s called the Tom Brady model because Brady was never the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback. But after retirement, Brady’s resume helped him sign a 10-year, $375 million broadcasting contract with Fox Sports. That’s the largest TV deal in history (by a mile) and more than Brady earned throughout his entire 23-year NFL career.
Tom Brady's Career Earnings
NFL: $332 million (23 years)
Fox Sports: $375 million (10 years)
Most players don’t follow this model because NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed for injury, and there is no certainty that you will even win championships if you sacrifice financial upside for your teammates. But for someone like Mahomes, it has worked out perfectly so far. Not only is Mahomes the NFL’s most popular player, but he’s used his celebrity status to build one of the most impressive ownership portfolios in sports.
Mahomes kicked things off in 2020 by spending some of his new contract money on a minority stake in the Kansas City Royals. This wasn’t the most high-upside bet, but Mahomes’ dad played in the MLB, and baseball has become one of the most stable investments in sports, with strong local viewership and packed stadiums all summer.
Mahomes then followed the Royals deal up with a string of other investments, including a stake in MLS club Sporting KC and the NWSL’s Kansas City Current.
The MLS club is currently valued at $630 million and will certainly see its value increase over the coming years. But the bigger bet is on the NWSL, as Mahomes and his wife were part of the founding team that paid just a $5 million expansion fee for a franchise that is now valued at $182 million (and could be worth $1 billion in 10 years).
These teams are all in Kansas City, which was intentional because it allows Mahomes to maximize his influence. And you can’t forget about Formula 1, as Mahomes was part of a group that included Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan, Rory McIlroy, and Travis Kelce, who purchased a 24% stake in the Alpine F1 team for $210 million.
This Formula 1 investment should be another big winner, as all F1 teams are now worth more than $1 billion after Liberty Media added a cost cap. Similar to American sports leagues, Formula 1’s cost cap limits how much teams can spend each year, like a salary cap, which has made forecasting easier and each team cash-flow positive.
Mahomes also consistently earns more money than any other NFL player ($27 million last year) through endorsement deals with companies like Adidas, State Farm, BOSS, Coors Light, Oakley, Subway, and Walmart. And Mahomes has used this money to acquire equity stakes in other businesses like Whataburger, Whoop, Hyperice, Throne Sport Coffee, and he is even opening a steakhouse in Kansas City with Travis Kelce.
But if Mahomes can successfully bring a WNBA team to Kansas City, the fanbase that already loves him will love him even more, and he might find himself as one of only a handful of athletes who have become billionaires through professional sports.
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