Harris Blitzer and the Multi-Team Ownership Model
Josh Harris's Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment is the most consequential Jewish sports-ownership platform in the US. Across the 76ers, Devils, Eagles, and Commanders, it operationalises a multi-team capital model.
The platform
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), founded by Josh Harris (co-founder of Apollo Global Management) and David Blitzer (Blackstone), holds the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and the New Jersey Devils (NHL) as the anchor properties. Around that core, Harris and Blitzer separately hold significant stakes in the Philadelphia Eagles (NFL), the Crystal Palace Premier League position, and the Washington Commanders consortium acquisition that Harris led in 2023.
What makes it consequential
US major-league franchise ownership has historically been single-family, single-team. The HBSE platform is one of the clearest examples of an institutional-style multi-team holding company — shared back-office, shared analytics, shared real-estate strategy, shared executive bench, and a capital structure that can move across opportunities. Harris's background at Apollo is what shaped that operating model.
The Commanders transaction
The 2023 acquisition of the Washington Commanders, at approximately USD 6.05 billion, was the highest price paid for a North American sports franchise at the time and reset NFL valuation expectations. Harris led the consortium, which included Magic Johnson and several institutional co-investors. The deal cemented Harris as the most active large-scale Jewish sports owner in the US.
Why this matters
The HBSE platform is the operating illustration of how UHNW capital reshapes sports-franchise ownership: not as collector trophies, but as a portfolio approach to a category whose underlying assets — broadcast rights, stadium real estate, regional sports networks — have institutional-capital characteristics. The Olam covers the architecture of that approach.