Add Page Six on Google Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro became the latest execs from Hollywood to get their hands on a pro team by acquiring minority stakes in the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. WME client Tom Brady and Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban are also minority owners.
A spokesperson for the two says their stakes (each bought individually and not part of their business empires) will amount to less than 10% of the team. Per reports, Emanuel will own around 1.4%, while Shapiro gets 0.6%. They are expected to close later this month. It’s the second team for Shapiro, who is already part of the ownership group of MLS club, LAFC. Shapiro’s NFL ties span back to 2005, when he landed “Monday Night Football” for ESPN, when he was running programming and production for the Disney-owned sports network.
The news got us thinking about who else with Hollywood ties is part of this growing list of team owners, most of which are small, minority stakes.
Longtime film producer Peter Guber is part of the ownership groups for the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors. Guber and Shapiro are among a very lengthy list of minority owners for LAFC, which also includes Will Ferrell and Riot Games co-founders Brandon Beck and Mark Merrill (Beck is actually co-managing owner).
Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro outside the New York Stock Exchange in 2023. Zuffa LLC Jeff Skoll, who founded “Green Book” and “Spotlight” producer Participant Media, has a 10% stake in Monumental Sports Group, the firm owned by billionaire Ted Leonsis that owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics and Washington Capitals.
Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull has a minority stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fun fact: Steelers players including Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward made cameos in “The Dark Knight Rises,” which Legendary co-produced, as players on the fictional Gotham Rogues during the football stadium scene.
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis at the Miami and Indiana game at Hard Rock Stadium in January. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images Steve Tisch has co-owned the New York Giants for years alongside John Mara, whose nieces are actresses Kate and Rooney Mara. (Tisch is a producer on Amazon MGM’s upcoming John Madden biopic starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale.) Dwayne Johnson is a co-owner of the United Football League, which came about after his XFL merged with the Fox-owned USFL in 2023.
“Shark Tank” star and sometimes film producer and distributor Mark Cuban is now a minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks after being a principal owner of the team.
Jerry Bruckheimer is the co-founder and majority owner of the Seattle Kraken NHL team.
But arguably the most notable Hollywood-to-team ownership example takes place across the Atlantic, with Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ majority ownership of Welsh soccer club, Wrexham AFC, which the duo bought in 2020. The two are also minority owners with Eva Longoria in Mexican soccer club, Necaxa.
