(Image courtesy of X Games League)

Weeks before the first competition of the new MoonPay X Games League, it has sold its first franchises, the summer and winter teams for New York City, to UNA Sports Group in what the league said was an “eight-figure deal.”

It’s very validating," said X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom (no relation). “We’ve been on a path for validation for about five months now. I think we’ve got a tremendous amount of tailwind.”

The deal for one of the nascent league’s first four pairs of franchises (winter teams and summer teams for New York, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Tokyo) is another example of the hot market for franchises in multiple sports, both in so-called “Big Four” traditional men’s sports and in a group of fast-rising women’s sports.

“It’s a non-correlated asset (to the stock market),” said Bloom. “Over the last 60 years, nothing’s appreciated like sports franchises," pointing to franchise fees in new leagues for pickleball and yacht racing. “You can’t find that kind of value creation in the public markets.”

In San Diego, the Seidler family is selling a controlling stake in Major League Baseball’s Padres for an MLB-record $3.9 billion valuation. Last year, Mark Walter, the controlling owner of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, increased his minority stake in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, at a franchise valuation estimated at up to $7 billion, along with a reported right of first refusal should the controlling Buss family decide to sell.

The growth among women’s pro sports franchises has been even more startling, as buyers calculate growth potential for media rights, advertising, sponsorships and other revenue sources. The WNBA’s two newest expansion teams, about to tip off their first seasons in Toronto and Portland, each sold for a reported $115 million.

In 2024, former Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay, dean of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, bought the NWSL’s Angel City F.C. franchise in Los Angeles for $250 million. The original franchise expansion fee for Angel City was just $2 million in 2020. Other NWSL franchises have been selling for closer to $100 million each.

Bloom said the remaining three pairs of X Games franchises remain for sale by the league, with more potential buyers in talks. Unlike perhaps any other modern professional sport, the X Games League will be co-ed, each season’s 10 athletes even split between women and men.

Owning a pro franchise gives a deep-pocketed buyer a unique trophy asset, the thrills of a sports team, and the potential for dramatic appreciation in value over several years. Those values have been driven substantially by fast-rising TV rights even for less-prominent leagues as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets bid for programming that provides loyal, high-tune-in audiences.

New York’s summer team features No. 1 overall pick Chloe Covell, a 16-year-old Australian skateboarder who has been winning X Games medals since she was 12, and Nyjah Huston, who’s won 15 X Games gold medals over the past two decades. BMX Olympic medalists Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin are also members of the summer team. The winter franchises won’t draft their athletes until the fall.

“I think the transition from old X Games to this new format is very attractive from the fan engagement side, to revitalizing the X Games brand, to media partners, action sports, and the sports ecosystem,” said UNA partner and co-founder Andrew Thau. “We’re believers in that. We’re believers in (X Games) owners with a background in F1, and Jeremy’s background that’s exceptional."

The league is owned by MSP Sports Capital, which also previously owned a minority stake in McLaren’s Formula 1 racing team. Thau is a former COO at UTA, where he led the talent agency’s acquisition of Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports and other sports-related ventures before leaving to co-create UNA.

UNA’s other principals are CEO/Managing Partner Del Wright and President David Rader. Thau will serve as X Games governor for the New York franchises.

Doubling down on New York was particularly attractive to UNA, Thau said, allowing the company to build a year-round presence in a dynamic sports market with plenty of media and brand business close at hand.

“It’s not lost on us that the commercial opportunities in New York are unique,” said Thau. “Owning two franchises (in the same city) will allow us to have operational leverage and work with partners across the ecosystem. And buying something with pre-existing brand and TV deals and sponsorships was really compelling to us.”

The league’s first team competitions will be held at the end of June in Sacramento, Calif., and will also feature night-time concerts with major dance and hip hop acts Kaskade, Mustard and Subtronics.

The company’s last non-league Winter Games, in January in Aspen, drew the event’s biggest ratings in six years, hitting 15.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The league has TV rights deals with ESPN, which retains a minority stake after founding the original X Games three decades ago, and with Roku. Monster energy drinks is a major sponsor and digital payments company MoonPay is the league’s name partner.