New PE Firm BlackSun Raises $1 Billion For Sports, Media Fund
BlackSun Private Equity, a newly launched firm led by figures from politics, sport and entertainment, has raised $1 billion for its first fund, with another $1 billion committed, targeting investments in professional sports and franchise ownership. Unlike many private equity firms now circling sports franchises, BlackSun says it will emphasise community and stakeholder participation, extending investment opportunities to fans and local communities through a dedicated equity programme. Its early moves include assembling a group to bid for the Seattle SuperSonics as the team eyes a return to the NBA.
The firm was founded by former college footballer and cable-network entrepreneur Atonn Muhammad and investment banker Nery Gomez, with a leadership team including ex-Obama White House official Nick Rathod and Olympic shot-put medallist John Godina; athletes such as Jason Kidd, Roy Jones Jr and Lawrence Taylor are attached as investors. BlackSun's ambitions include launching a World American Football League with player equity ownership and a fighter-focused platform called Knockout Fights offering salaries, healthcare and pensions. Its capital structure includes a $100 million SPAC, a $500 million PIPE programme and a $750 million acquisition facility, with Dubai-based Greenstone Equity Partners placing its new Mega Fund I, which has a $7 billion target and is courting Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
- BlackSun Private Equity raises $1 billion, targets sports and media investments.
- Firm is bidding to help bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle.
- Plans include a new football league and $7 billion mega fund.
New here? Start with this
BlackSun Private Equity is a newly formed investment firm targeting professional sports, with a particular focus on buying stakes in sports franchises and related media ventures. It has raised $1 billion for its first investment fund, with a second $1 billion pledged, at a time when private equity money is increasingly flowing into team ownership. What sets it apart, according to the firm, is a plan to let fans and local communities buy into teams alongside big investors, rather than keeping ownership limited to wealthy individuals and institutions.
The firm was set up by Atonn Muhammad, a former college footballer turned cable-network entrepreneur, and investment banker Nery Gomez. Its leadership and investor roster draws on people from sport, politics and entertainment, including a former Obama administration official, an Olympic medallist, and well-known athletes such as Jason Kidd, Roy Jones Jr and Lawrence Taylor.
BlackSun's plans extend beyond buying into existing teams. It is also looking to help launch new sporting ventures, including an American football league and a fighter-focused organisation offering athletes salaries and benefits, and has already begun assembling a group interested in bringing an NBA team back to Seattle. Its funding is built from several different financial sources, including backing from a Dubai-based investment firm seeking money from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, reflecting how international capital is increasingly being channelled into US sport.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters see BlackSun as a genuinely different model of sports investment, one that channels serious institutional capital into franchises and leagues while still extending real ownership stakes to fans, local communities and athletes who have historically been shut out of these deals. They point to concrete commitments such as player equity in a new football league and salaries, healthcare and pensions for fighters as evidence that private capital can be structured to benefit participants rather than just financiers. The breadth of its leadership, spanning sport, politics and entertainment, is seen as a strength that could bring credibility, networks and a broader sense of civic stakeholding to franchises like a returning Seattle SuperSonics team.
The case against
Sceptics note that beneath the community-equity branding, BlackSun is still built on classic private-equity mechanics, a SPAC, a PIPE programme and acquisition facilities, structures that have a mixed track record and can carry hidden leverage, complexity and risk for the very fans and communities it says it wants to empower. They also raise concerns about the fund's reliance on a placement partner courting Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, questioning whether capital from such sources could bring outside priorities or reputational agendas into American sports and media. More broadly, some worry this continues a trend of financialising sport, where teams and leagues become vehicles for capital markets first and communities second, regardless of the stated intentions.