Tremaine Edmunds #49 of the Chicago Bears celebrates with teammates after making an interception during the second half against the Dallas Cowboys on September 21, 2025 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.
Melissa Tamez | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
The National Football League’s finance committee approved the sale of 2.35% of the Chicago Bears to existing owners of the team in a deal that sets a league record and values the Bears at $8.9 billion, according to three people familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The deal closed several days ago, according to one of the people. Because the sale is to existing team owners, the league does not require the deal to be approved by three-fourths of the NFL’s owners.
The Bears were valued at $6.4 billion just a year ago in CNBC’s Official NFL Team Valuations — No. 10 among the league’s 32 teams. The team rose to No. 7 in CNBC’s 2025 valuations.
The stake of the Bears that was sold was held by the estate of Andrew McKenna, according to two people familiar with the deal. McKenna died in 2023. Galatioto Sports Partners represented the estate in the sale, said the people, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two-thirds of the 2.3% sold will go to the McCaskey family and one-third will go to the Ryan family, leaving the former with about 77% ownership and the latter with about 23%, the people said.
Neither the NFL nor Galatioto Sports Partners responded to emailed questions from CNBC about the sale.
The previous record high valuation in the sale of a minority stake in an NFL team was $8.6 billion, in the purchase of a 6.2% stake of the San Francisco 49ers in May, according to a person familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. That topped the $8.3 billion valuation for an 8% stake in the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of 2024, CNBC previously reported. The New York Giants are currently looking to sell a 10% stake at about a $10 billion valuation, CNBC previously reported.
The Bears currently play at the obsolete Soldier Field, which was last renovated more than 20 years ago. The Chicago Park District gets some of the revenue from non-NFL events at the stadium. The team is exploring building a stadium in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. A fixed-roof domed stadium would give the Bears an opportunity to host non-NFL events year-round and get more non-NFL event revenue.
Valuations for the sale of limited partner stakes do not necessarily translate to control sale prices. Large LP stakes, say, above 20%, typically sell at discounts to control sale valuations because limited partners have no stake in how the team is run and the dollar amount to buy the stake is relatively large. In some cases, however, small LP stakes, say, below 10%, can sell at a premium to a control sale valuation because an LP stake may be the only opportunity a person has to own a piece of an NFL team due to skyrocketing valuations and the actual dollar amount required to buy such a stake is relatively small.
The last control sale of an NFL team was Josh Harris’ purchase of the Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion in 2023, according to media reports.