Patriots Reportedly Sell Minority Stake at $9B Valuation, Billionaire Buys 5% Interest

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has added two minority investors to the organization's ownership group.

Per Sporitco's Kurt Badenhausen, Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams, Kraft is selling an eight percent stake in the Patriots that is split between private equity firm Sixth Street and billionaire businessman Dean Metropoulos.

Metropoulos will receive a five percent stake, with Sixth Street buying the remaining three percent. The total sale price exceeds a valuation of $9 billion.

The report noted funds from the sale will be reinvested in the Patriots and doesn't include any stake in the New England Revolution, the MLS club also owned by the Kraft family.

Sixth Street, a global investment firm based in San Francisco, continues to expand its sports ownership portfolio. The firm currently owns stakes in the Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, San Francisco Giants, FC Barcelona and Bay FC.

Under NFL rules, team owners are allowed to sell up to a 10 percent stake in the franchise to private equity firms that have been previously vetted by the league.

Metropoulos, 79, graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His biggest claim to fame up to this point was leading a group that saved the Hostess Brand. purchasing it for $410 million after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012.

The valuation of at least $9 billion for the Patriots is the second-richest for an NFL team. Earlier this month, a group led by Julia Koch agreed to purchase a 10 percent stake in the New York Giants at a $10 billion valuation.

In a ranking of each NFL team's valuation released in August by Justin Teitelbaum and Brett Knight of Forbes, the Dallas Cowboys ($13.1 billion), Los Angeles Rams ($10.5 billion) and Giants ($10.1 billion) were the only clubs valued at more than $10 billion.

The Patriots were fourth on the list at $9 billion.

Kraft will remain the primary owner of the Patriots. He has been in charge of the franchise since January 1994. They have won six titles in 10 Super Bowl appearances during his 31-year ownership tenure.