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.
Sports & Capital · Multi-Asset Ownership · Updated June 28, 2026
Josh Harris and David Blitzer together control Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), the multi-franchise sports holding company that owns the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the New Jersey Devils (NHL), Crystal Palace Football Club (English Premier League minority position), the Washington Commanders (NFL, Harris-led ownership group), and a network of additional sports and entertainment assets. The Harris-Blitzer partnership is one of the most consequential applications of private-equity capital and operational discipline to the sports-ownership category. The two principals, both with Apollo Global Management origins, built the multi-team architecture as the canonical contemporary version of the cross-sport ownership model.
The Principals
Josh Harris is the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, the alternative-asset management firm where he and Leon Black built one of the largest credit-and-private-equity platforms globally across the 1990s and 2000s. Harris stepped back from Apollo operational leadership in 2018 and accelerated the sports-ownership architecture as his principal commercial activity. He led the consortium that acquired the Washington Commanders in 2023 for $6.05 billion — at the time, the highest price paid for any U.S. professional sports franchise.
David Blitzer is the head of Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities Group and a senior figure in the Blackstone private-equity organization. Blitzer partnered with Harris on the 2011 acquisition of the Philadelphia 76ers and has been Harris's principal partner across the subsequent multi-franchise build.
The Harris-Blitzer partnership operates as a structured commercial relationship rather than a unified holding company. The two principals partner on individual franchises and joint ventures, with shared operating infrastructure across HBSE.
The Philadelphia 76ers
Harris and Blitzer acquired the 76ers in 2011 for approximately $280 million from Comcast Spectacor. The franchise had been one of the lowest-valued and lowest-performing NBA assets in the years leading to the transaction.
The new ownership ran what became one of the most discussed franchise rebuilding strategies in modern NBA history — "The Process" under General Manager Sam Hinkie. The strategy involved deliberate competitive losses across multiple seasons to accumulate high draft picks. The Process produced the foundational roster — Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons (later traded), and the broader young talent core — that the franchise has built around since the late 2010s.
The franchise valuation has compounded substantially since the 2011 acquisition. Current Forbes franchise valuations place the 76ers in the $3-4 billion range, representing one of the strongest commercial outcomes for any sports-franchise acquisition of the modern era.
The New Jersey Devils
Harris and Blitzer acquired the New Jersey Devils in 2013 from Jeff Vanderbeek for approximately $320 million. The transaction included the operating rights to the Prudential Center arena in Newark, creating an integrated arena-and-team commercial structure.
The Devils franchise has operated under a longer-cycle rebuild than the 76ers, with periodic competitive cycles producing playoff appearances and structural ones producing rebuilding seasons. The franchise has appreciated commercially in line with the broader NHL valuation expansion.
The Prudential Center arena operations under HBSE produce substantial non-team revenue from concerts, family entertainment, college sports, and adjacent events. The arena commercial position is one of the structural revenue drivers of the broader HBSE portfolio.
Crystal Palace and the European Position
Harris and Blitzer acquired stakes in Crystal Palace Football Club in 2015. The acquisition gave HBSE structural exposure to the English Premier League franchise economics — broadcast revenue distribution, the European football financial architecture, and the structural appreciation of EPL franchise valuations across the past decade.
Crystal Palace is positioned in the middle of the EPL competitive structure — not a top-six revenue franchise, but a structurally established Premier League club with a London-area market position and stable broadcast revenue allocation. The 2024 sale of part of the Crystal Palace position to Eagle Football Holdings (the John Textor-controlled vehicle) and the broader corporate restructuring of the club's ownership produced one of the more complicated commercial transactions in the recent EPL ownership history.
The Commanders Acquisition
The 2023 acquisition of the Washington Commanders by a Harris-led consortium was the largest single sports-franchise transaction in U.S. history. The $6.05 billion purchase price reflected the structural appreciation of NFL franchise values, the strategic premium for one of the few NFL teams ever available, and the personal commitment Harris made to assemble the consortium during a contested sale process.
The Commanders ownership group includes multiple high-net-worth individuals beyond Harris — Magic Johnson, the Smiths and Lerner families and additional limited partners — structured under Harris-led control. The structural complexity of the consortium is one of the largest in NFL ownership history.
The franchise operational rebuild — new general manager, new head coach, new front-office organization, and the long-term decision around stadium location and design — constitutes one of the largest contemporary sports-business projects. The early competitive performance under the new ownership has been more promising than the immediately preceding ownership cycle produced.
The Multi-Team Logic
The Harris-Blitzer multi-team architecture operates on several structural propositions.
The capital-allocation logic. Sports franchises across major leagues have appreciated at rates that compete with or exceed many alternative private-equity asset classes. The structural scarcity of franchises, the rising broadcast and media rights revenue, and the structural inflation in sports media economics together produce a sustained appreciation trajectory.
The operating-infrastructure logic. Multiple franchises under shared ownership can leverage shared operating infrastructure — sponsorship sales, finance operations, real-estate development, technology platforms. The shared-services architecture reduces per-franchise operating cost and produces higher franchise-level returns.
The strategic-information logic. Operating multiple franchises across leagues produces information about sports-media economics, fan-engagement strategies, and franchise-value drivers that single-franchise owners cannot access. The information advantage compounds.
The Apollo and Blackstone Backgrounds
Both Harris and Blitzer have operated, and continue to operate, as senior figures inside the largest alternative-asset management firms globally. The capital, governance discipline, and operational rigour they bring to sports ownership reflect the institutional culture of the firms where they built their primary careers.
The structural application of private-equity discipline to sports-franchise ownership has been one of the defining themes of the past 15 years of sports-business evolution. Harris-Blitzer is the canonical case study of the application.
What 2026 Tracks
Three threads matter. First, the Commanders stadium decision — the choice between renovation of the existing FedEx Field site, return to the RFK Stadium site in Washington DC, or a Virginia or Maryland new-stadium project — which is one of the largest single capital-allocation decisions Harris will make. Second, the 76ers competitive trajectory and the question of whether the franchise produces an NBA championship that the long-cycle Process strategy was designed to deliver. Third, the broader HBSE portfolio evolution and the question of whether additional franchises enter the holding structure across the next several years.
Harris-Blitzer is the contemporary template for multi-team sports ownership. The architecture continues.
Olam coverage
- Jewish ownership in U.S. professional sports
- The sports-media economics of franchise valuation
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