Topline
The NBA’s Chicago Bulls on Friday announced that billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton and his wife acquired a minority stake in the franchise and its home arena as the market value of professional sports franchises continues to swell.
The billionaire Reinsdorf family will retain a controlling interest in the NBA franchise.
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Key Facts
Lukas Walton, 39, and his wife Samantha acquired a minority interest in the Chicago Bulls and the United Center, home to the Bulls and the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, the Bulls announced, though details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The Reinsdorf family, which has owned the Chicago Bulls since 1985, will retain controlling interest in the franchise, and both the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families hold majority stakes in the United Center.
forbes valuation
Forbes ranked the Chicago Bulls as the sixth-largest NBA franchise by market value ($6 billion) last year, and the 19th-most-profitable sports franchise globally after bringing in $160 million. Lukas Walton has a net worth estimated at $45.8 billion as of Friday. He is the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and he inherited about one-third of his father’s estate after John Walton died in a 2005 plane crash. Lukas Walton holds stakes in Walmart and his family’s Arvest Bank group, which oversees roughly $27 billion in assets. Jerry Reinsdorf, who made his first fortune in real estate before buying the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox, has a fortune estimated at $2.3 billion. Forbes previously valued the fortune of the Wirtz family, which purchased the Chicago Blackhawks in 1954, at $4.4 billion in 2015.
key background
The market value of American sports franchises has climbed over the last decade. The Los Angeles Lakers were sold to billionaire Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter for $10 billion last year, a record that nearly doubled the previous North American sports sale record, surpassing the $6.1 billion sale of the Boston Celtics earlier in the year. That broke the $6 billion sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2023. Franchises that have not sold have seen enormous appreciation: Forbes estimates four teams are now worth at least $10 billion, including the Dallas Cowboys ($13 billion), the Golden State Warriors ($11 billion), the Los Angeles Rams ($10.5 billion) and the New York Giants ($10.1 billion).