Private equity firm Sixth Street has invested in the San Francisco Giants in a deal that includes both the MLB team and its real estate efforts in the city’s downtown waterfront.
That project, a public-private partnership called Mission Rock that sits on land right outside Oracle Park, has been years in the making. The first phase, a reported $1.5 billion series of office and residential buildings, opened in 2023 with three more phases yet to come. Sportico values the team, and its team-related holdings, at $4.2 billion, the fourth highest in MLB.
Sixth Street’s stake will be about 10%, and it is not buying its equity from an existing minority partner, according to a source familiar with the details, who was granted anonymity because the details are private. A rep for Sixth Street declined to comment on the financial terms. Reps for the Giants and Raine Group, which was retained to handle the sale, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Real estate has become a primary way that sports teams leverage their popularity, with mixed-use developments serving as year-round income and ancillary revenue streams. Across town in San Francisco, for example, the Golden State Warriors’ privately financed Chase Center includes two office buildings, 100,000 square feet of mixed-use retail and underground parking. Its development played a critical role in the NBA team’s rapid rise to becoming the league’s most valuable team at $9.14 billion.
In baseball, the example most often cited is The Battery Atlanta, a mixed-use development around the Braves stadium that includes a hotel, residential housing, office space, retail shops and other entertainment spaces. By the Braves’ own accounting, the development has been significantly more profitable than the team itself. In 2024, the Battery reported $45 million in adjusted OIBDA, as opposed to $6.6 million for the baseball team, per the Braves financials.
These real estate opportunities have been particularly attractive to the private equity firms that are investing heavily in sports team ownership. Arctos Partners, the most aggressive firm over the last few years, has bought into the Cubs, Red Sox and Dodgers—all of which have significant real estate holdings. Arctos also previously invested in the Giants.
The 28-acre Mission Rock development is located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, a rapidly changing area that’s home to a slew of biotech and AI startups. That’s a rare success in a city where retail spaces have struggled to stay viable—the San Francisco Chronicle recently called it one of the city’s “most successful redevelopment experiments.” The Giants partnered with real estate developer Tishman Speyer on the project, which broke ground in 2020 and was estimated at the time to take more than a decade to complete.
Giants CEO Larry Baer recently told the Chronicle that no money from the MLB team is diverted to the real estate project, and vice versa.
“We’re 50-50, so it’s not like we can say, ‘Oh, Tishman, sorry, we’ve got an infielder to sign for $25 million,’” he told the newspaper. “I think there’s some confusion, because you see all this stuff going up. It’s like, ‘Oh, the Giants are just rolling in it.’ Well, hopefully one day this will be a really strong asset for this organization. It’s a 50% [ownership] of it. But for now, we’re focused on whatever comes in, goes back into the next phase and into improvements and into retail and the [tenant improvements] and all the different things you have to do to make the project work.”
The Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014, but have made just two playoff appearances since, and total attendance has fallen from its highs a decade ago. In September the team hired former star catcher Buster Posey as its president of baseball operations.
Sixth Street’s other sports holdings include Legends and NWSL club Bay FC, plus minority investments in the San Antonio Spurs, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
PJT Partners advised Sixth Street on the deal, and Latham & Watkins LLP served as its legal counsel.
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