Another group is revealed to be in the mix to buy the Broncos
May 25, 2022, 7:53 PM | Updated: 8:03 pm
Another group bidding for the Broncos has been linked to the team.
Per a report from Mike Klis of KUSA-Ch. 9, a group featuring former Michigan State basketball player Mat Ishbia and his brother, Justin Ishbia, are among the potential owners who visited with Broncos executives and others involved with the sale of the team.
Mat Ishbia is the president and CEO of UWM Holdings, formerly known as United Wholesale Mortgage. His father, Jeffrey Ishbia, started the company in 1986.
Mat Ishbia became the company’s CEO in 2013, and took it public in January 2021. His net worth is estimated at $5.25 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, placing him 476th in the world. Forbes estimates Mat Ishbia’s net worth at $4.5 billion.
He played as a walk-on for longtime coach Tom Izzo, and was a part of the Spartans’ 2000 national-championship team. That squad remains the last Big Ten team to win a men’s basketball national championship.
Last year, Mat Ishbia made a $32 million donation to Michigan State athletics, covering the cost of a new facility for the football program led by former CU head coach Mel Tucker. His donation also included renaming the school’s basketball court at Breslin Center after Izzo.
Justin Ishbia’s business interests include being a founding partner of Shore Capital, a private-equity firm. According to Forbes, his net worth is $1.4 billion.
Ishbia is one of three groups known to have visited the Broncos in recent weeks. Groups led by former Walmart CEO Rob Walton and multi-sport team owner Josh Harris have also conferred with Broncos representatives after expressing interest in the team.
Television executive Byron Allen and Eldridge Industries CEO Todd Boehly have also expressed interest in the Broncos. However, it is not known whether they have visited with team executives in recent weeks.
Boehly officially ccompleted a takeover of Premier League club Chelsea F.C. worth a reported $5.33 billion Tuesday when his bid was approved by the U.K. government. He has a 20-percent stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. Boehly also owns portions of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.
Harris, whose net worth is estimated by Bloomberg at $7.34 billion, has controlling interest in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and Crystal Palace F.C. of the Premier League. Among the reported investors in Harris’ bid is former NBA MVP Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The ex-Lakers star has a 2.3-percent stake in the Dodgers as a part of a reported $620-million portfolio.
At the NFL Annual Meeting in March, Broncos President/CEO Joe Ellis — who is a part of the Pat Bowlen trust overseeing the sale of the team — said that completing the transaction by the start of the regular season is a “realistic timetable.”
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