The Premier Lacrosse League has raised a $100 million Series E funding round led by Joe Tsai and funds of Ares Management. Tsai, the Alibaba co-founder who owns the Nets and Liberty, first backed the PLL in 2019, while Ares has joined as a new investor. Other returning investors in this round include ESPN, which increased the stake it first acquired as part of its PLL media rights extension last year, and David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures family office.
New investors include actors Rob Mac and Glen Powell; the Tisch family’s Next 3, which also has stakes in League One Volleyball and Gotham FC; Jon-Erik Borgen’s FirstTracks Sports Ventures, which previously invested in Austin FC and Denver Summit FC; Jed Hart, the head of Europe for Centerbridge Partners and a USA Lacrosse Foundation board member; and Shumway Capital founder and Hornets minority owner Chris Shumway, among others.
Paul Rabil, the league’s co-founder, president and chief creative officer, told SBJ that the new funding represents a sort of “turning point” for the league as it prepares to evolve to a new business model. The PLL currently operates as a single entity with eight league-owned teams, but league leadership is eyeing potential new structures, including the sale of those teams to external investors. New investment would come at the cost of total control. Rabil said all options remain on the table.
“What makes our business very attractive to investors also makes a business that’s very difficult to run, because we are a team sports league that’s fully owned as if it were the UFC or the WWE,” Rabil said. “As we look to explore various forms of growth to profitability or liquidity for shareholders, or a potential model shift to having [team] investor-operators, like the MLS calls them, those are all in the future.”
Rabil declined to share details around his company’s financial performance or valuation, though he said each PLL funding round has been at a “meaningful step-up in valuation.” The league has never previously disclosed how much it’s raised.
Rabil added that Tsai, the PLL’s lead investor, has mainly used capital raises as a means of onboarding strategic partners. Those include co-leading investments from Arctos and the Kraft Group in 2021, The Chernin Group in 2022 and now Ares, an increasingly influential sports dealmaker.
Jim Miller, who co-leads Ares’ sports investment strategy, will take a seat on the PLL board. He joins Tsai, Doc O’Connor of Arctos, The Raine Group’s Colin Neville, The Chernin Group co-founder and partner Mike Kerns and Hildene Capital’s Brett Jefferson. There are also four founder-controlled board seats held by Rabil and his brother, PLL co-founder and CEO Mike Rabil (former Barstool Sports CEO Erika Badan and CAA’s Mike Levine sit in the other two).
The Raine Group, an early PLL investor, advised the league on its Series E. Ares and Tsai did not have a financial adviser. Tsai, who played lacrosse at Yale, also owns two National Lacrosse League teams.
