The Archers Lacrosse Club was one of the founder teams in the new Premier Lacrosse League (PLL).
The Archers team is not a franchise with separate owners. Instead, the club belongs to the Premier Lacrosse League which is owned by a group of investors.
This article explains the ownership structure of the Archers and gives a rundown of the main shareholders.
Who Owns The Archers Lacrosse Team In The PLL?
The Archers Lacrosse Club is owned by Premier Lacrosse League, inc.
It is one of eight professional teams in common ownership by PLL, a private company with significant investment from shareholders including:
- Paul and Mike Rabil (co-founders)
- Joe Tsai
- Kraft Group
- Proton Enterprises
- Raine Group
- Blum Capital
- Bolt Ventures
- CAA Sports
- Chernin Group
- Chris Hogan
- David O’Connor
- Fortress Investment Group
- Harris Blitzer Entertainment Group
- Sol Kumin
Paul and Mike Rabil are two brothers who co-founded the PLL in 2018. They quickly sought major investors to buy into the league.
All players in the league also have some equity in the holding company. The level of their ownership stakes hasn’t been made public.
The lengthy list of co-owners above doesn’t include all the minority shareholders. In this article, I’ll look at some of the more interesting owners of the Archers. If you want bios of the full list, we have an overview of PLL investors.
I’ll start with one of the early investors, Joe Tsai. If you’re wondering if this new league has enough financial backing, Tsai has a net worth of over eight billion dollars.
Joe Tsai, Minority Owner And Multi-Billionaire
Joe Tsai made his billions as a co-founder of Alibaba, the giant online retailer that branched into equity investment and many other business lines.
If you’re wondering if he has more than a business in lacrosse, I’ll mention that he played the sport in High School in New Jersey. He also went on to play for the varsity team at Yale University.
How Joe made his billions
After graduation, he joined an equity investment firm and managed their Asian business line. If Tsai’s name isn’t familiar to you, you may have heard of Jack Ma who is usually named as the main founder.
Tsai met Jack Ma in China in 1999, just as Ma was putting together a group of founders for his new business vision. Tsai left his $700K per year investment role to join Ma’s founding team on a salary of $600 per year.
He became Chief Financial Officer of the new Alibaba company and was a large part of its rise to success. When Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, it raised $25 billion.
That was the largest IPO in history at the time. All the co-founders became very rich indeed.
Investing in multiple sports
Before Tsai was approached by the Rabil brothers about a new Lacrosse league, he was already heavily involved in sporting franchises.
Tsai is the majority owner of the Brooklyn Nets, one of the NBA teams. He also bought the Barclays Center (where the Nets play) for a cool one billion dollars in 2019.
He also owns the New York Liberty franchise that plays in the WNBA. He also has ownership stakes in the Los Angeles franchise of Major League Soccer.
And interestingly, the PLL isn’t Tsai’s first foray into investing in lacrosse as a sport.
Investing in lacrosse
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) announced in 2017 that their new San Diego franchise was owned by Joe Tsai. It was a natural fit for Tsai who has a house in San Diego.
A year later, the Rabil brothers approached Tsai about getting their new professional league off the ground. Tsai was one of the early investors in the PLL.
Kraft Group, Minority Owner
I mentioned that Paul Tsai owns the Brooklyn Centre, the home arena for the Brooklyn Nets.
But he’s not the only owner of a major arena who has also invested in the Archers Lacrosse Club and the rest of the PLL.
The other guy is Robert Kraft, founder of the Kraft Group.
Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots, the hugely successful NFL franchise. When he bought the team in 1994 for 172 million dollars, many commentators believed that it was far too much for a sports franchise.
The Patriots are worth about 4.9 billion dollars today.
So, what about the arena I mentioned?
Gillette Stadium
The Kraft Group own the Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play their home games.
This arena has a long association with lacrosse. The Foxborough stadium has hosted five NCAA lacrosse championships since 2008.
So, it was no surprise when the Archers played their opening match at the stadium for the first two seasons of the new league. Gillette Stadium has twice hosted the opening weekends of the PLL.
I assume that the PLL is getting a good deal for renting the stadium.
Kraft family connections
The Kraft family had another link with lacrosse from long before the introduction of the PLL.
Dan Kraft, a son of Robert, played goalie at Tufts University in the 1980s. Dan currently heads up several companies that are part of the Kraft Group.
Proton Enterprises, Minority Owner
I was a little disappointed when I realized that this company wasn’t associated with the Proton Power lacrosse head.
Paul Rabil popularized the brand when he used those heads at Hopkins. However, STX Sporting Goods is the company behind the gear.
Instead, Proton Enterprises is a New York-based investment company with a focus on both fin tech and health and fitness.
James Murphy is one of the founders who takes a particular interest in the health and fitness sector. Murphy highlights his work with Dr. Perlmutter in his company write-up.
Perlmutter has a health food brand and a series of books on gluten-free diets. There are plenty of other doctors and scientists who are not impressed with some of his theories.
