Report: NFL commissioner to decide buyer in sale of Bears stock

Rather than someone else owning more of the Bears through sale of shares owned by the estate of the late Andrew McKenna, it appears it will be more of the same.

According to a story by Eben Novy-Williams and Kurt Badenhausen from the sports-business site Sportico, the sale of McKenna's small piece of the team will go to either the McCaskeys or Pat Ryan. Both parties have right of first refusal.

The key point to the story, though, is the buyer will likely be determined by commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL general counsel Ted Ullyot. When there are disputes in ownership rights, the commissioner's office decides by NFL by-law.

The share amount is microscopic compared to what the McCaskeys already own. Numerous previous reports had called McKenna estate shares at almost 3% to 4% but the sourced story says it is only about 2%.

The story said the property sale does not tie into any succession or liquidity issue related to the death of the late Virginia McCaskey.

The Bears are valued by Sportico at $6.26 billion while Forbes has set it at $6.4 billion.

A report by Bloomberg last week said the Galatioto Sports Partners are handling the sale of the property.

With values of NFL teams soaring, and with the league now allowing up to 10% of teams to be sold to private equity firms, the two shares are likely to be very expensive for either of the two parties who have right of first refusal.

Earlier this year the Dolphins and Bills became the first teams to officially complete sale of shares to private equity firms and the Eagles and 49ers later sold the same way. Also, the Raiders have sold off 15% of their ownership to a pair of investors. The report by Sportico said the Dolphins, Eagles and 49ers all were made with valuations higher than $8 billion.

None of this appears on the surface to directly impact the Bears building a stadium in Arlington Heights. It could lead to that eventually if the McCaskeys were to buy the shares back into their family and then include those in their own sale to someone to raise funds and ultimately build the facility.

That's looking quite a ways down the road, however. The stadium project appears stalled at the moment by lack of governmental assistance on infrastructure costs.