Prediction: Gary Vee Owns the New York Jets in 2025
The 2025 NFL Season will be the first with Gary Vee as the owner of the New York Jets.
When Gary Vee owns the New York Jets, he will quickly become the Mark Cuban of the NFL. Which is exactly what the NBA needed then and it’ll be what the NFL needs in 2025.
The NFL has stuck to a certain desired “image” for the league and ownership.
With the ratings collapsing and viewership seeking new platforms and new media to consume, they will be forced to adapt to modern ways.
The Jets are valued at $2.75B. I’m not sure what caused the huge jump in 2014 and 2015 – the “value” doubled from 2013 to 2016 despite zero division titles or Super Bowl appearances.
With 10% drops in viewership year-over-year in 2016 and 2017 with no end in sight, the valuation will tank.
Gary Vee’s audience doubled in that time frame. He will find ways to turn that into huge amounts of cash and leverage to acquire a majority share of his favorite team.
NFL is losing $500M in advertising in 2017. The contracts with networks will shrink dramatically. League revenues will drop precipitously.
NBC has already decided to give Sunday Night Football to everyone with a phone.
But it’s not that we all cut cable. Although, that certainly doesn’t help.
Football just isn’t as relevant anymore.
Too many off-field issues: sexual assault, domestic violence, etc.
Games are too long. The pace is too slow. Too many ads. Better content on Netflix, Amazon and YouTube.
With viewership below 2008 levels today, and I predict they fall to pre-2001 levels by 2021… I think the upswing in Gary Vee’s net worth will coincide with the tanking in the New York Jets worth.
That results in the WSJ headline: “Gary Vee owns the New York Jets” in 2025.
Too early? Way off? Tell me why!
Here’s the math:
NFL has 15M viewers in 2017.
13.5M in 2018, 12M in 2019, 10.8M in 2020, 9.8M in 2021. The value of teams will drop 50% over that time frame as well. The lackluster TV contracts they’ll get in 2020 will crush the valuations.
More people realize their lives improved when not watching football all weekend. They won’t come back. With less people watching, the people who watched because their friends watched will all fade away until it’s only the fanatics.
By 2025, the NFL will NEED Gary Vee as badly as he WANTS the Jets.
So, they’ll swing a deal. Gary Vee will buy a majority share of the team for under $500M.
Gary Vee’s net worth is about $100M today. He’ll leverage that well with his agency and sports and investments. It’ll double a few times over between now and 2025. Then, he’ll hit $1B net worth by 2030.
The NFL will stop bleeding fans because VaynerNation will all become Jets fanatics. His audience will be over 10 million by 2025. A couple million of whom will start watching football just for Gary’s Jets.
That elusive Super Bowl trophy for the Jets though… That’ll take more years. It’ll be his next climb! He’ll hoist a Super Bowl trophy before 2040 though. I can see it now: “Ask Gary Vee Show Episode 4820: Look at this Super Bowl Ring and Why the Jets Will Repeat!”
Calling it now for 2025: Gary Vee owns the New York Jets and I own a Major League Lacrosse team.*
*The fee for a MLL expansion team is about $2M right now, I believe. Not quite as lofty a goal as Gary’s, but I’m passionate about lacrosse and want to grow the game, so it’s worth it for me.