While expected, the NFL’s vote to allow for limited private equity investment in its increasingly valuable teams is still a testimony to how things have changed in sport and sports law in the last several years. And perhaps a nod to the NFL’s market power in how it was able to handle the negotiations with private equity investors.

A time for upheaval in the business end of the sporting world, the last several years have seen many changes that a decade or so ago would have seemed unlikely. Prominent investment in professional women’s sports leagues, name/image/likeness payouts for college athletes, $100 billion television rights deals and outside investment in leagues and teams have created an economic juggernaut for those who get to play in the sandbox.