Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he has received offers of nearly $15 billion for the NFL franchise as sports teams skyrocket in price thanks to their valuable media rights.
“I don’t think there’s a better asset,” Ross, 85, said Wednesday during a Bloomberg interview in Palm Beach, Fla. “I know what I’ve been offered. Numbers you wouldn’t believe.”
The offers cited by the billionaire real estate and sports magnate mark a huge jump from the $1 billion he paid for the Dolphins — plus their stadium and surrounding developable land — in 2008 and 2009.
The $15 billion sum is roughly twice the amount of the team’s most recent valuation, from last summer, and would be the sale of a sports team in history, beating out last year’s $10 billion Los Angeles Lakers deal.
It was not clear whether the eight-figure offers would include the stadium and surrounding real estate in addition to the team.
Still, Ross said he isn’t interested in selling, remarking, “Where would you put the money?”
Ross – who founded real estate firm Related Cos. and is worth $15.1 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index – said he is planning to keep the team in the family, eventually passing ownership to his son-in-law Daniel Silliman.
The mogul said he believes valuations for NFL teams – including the Dolphins, which haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1974 – will only keep climbing higher as networks and streaming services like Netflix battle it out for their valuable media rights.
In 2024, Ross sold a 13% stake in the Dolphins and other assets, including Hard Rock Stadium and F1’s Miami Grand Prix, at a roughly $8 billion valuation – making him among the first to sell a stake in an NFL team to private equity firms.
Ross explained he wanted to raise capital for opportunities in Florida, which he views as the next big finance and tech hub. He argued the state’s pro-business tax policies could draw Californians to switch coasts.
“The venture capitalists kind of want to get out of California because of the restrictions that are there, the taxes, the cost of doing business there, the cost of living there – this is what’s really opened up opportunities for other states,” Ross told Bloomberg.
Ross, who lives in Palm Beach and has ramped up his investments in South Florida properties, called it “one of the best places in America today, if not the best, to really do business.”
The real estate developer would not comment on the team’s search for the 12th full-time head coach in Dolphins history, after firing Mike McDaniel earlier this month after four seasons in the role.
The Dolphins finished the season this year with seven wins and 10 losses.
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