Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos bidding for Washington Commanders

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In 2009, Toronto real-estate developer Andreas Apostolopoulos shocked the U.S. sports community by purchasing an 80,000-seat football stadium in the Detroit suburbs for the rock-bottom price of just US$583,000.

A generation later, son Steve Apostolopoulos is shaking up pro sports with an audacious move at the other end of the spectrum. Where his late father snagged a bargain, his Harvard University-educated offspring will potentially set a new high-water mark for the value of a professional franchise, as one of two bidders offering more than US$6-billion for the National Football League’s Washington Commanders.

In vying for an NFL team, the formerly low-profile Apostolopoulos is striving for membership in the most exclusive of clubs, as an owner of a pro sports franchise. If he buys the Commanders, the son of a Greek immigrant will be rubbing shoulders with heirs to the Walmart fortune, who acquired the Denver Broncos last summer for a record US$4.65-billion, and hedge fund billionaire David Tepper, who acquired the Carolina Panthers in 2018 for a then-record US$2.2-billion.

To buy the Commanders, Apostolopoulos will need to outbid a group led by Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest alternative asset funds. Harris already owns the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers and a stake in the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils and is worth an estimated US$7-billion.

Over the past 18 months, Apostolopoulos has built a relationship with NBA player agent Bernie Lee, president of Thread Sports Management LTD. In an interview, Lee said the real-estate executive has done the work needed to succeed as a team owner.

“Steve has immersed himself in the inner workings of pro sports, from understanding players and team management to the big-picture issues around the league,” said Lee, who represents basketball stars Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons. “Steve’s business and people skills are comparable to, or exceed, those of any sports owner I’ve meet.”

Prior to turning his attention to the NFL, Apostolopoulos was one of several bidders on a stake owner Michael Jordan is selling in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Apostolopoulos’s wealth comes from commercial and industrial real estate that he owns with his two older brothers, Jim and Peter, through a private company called the Triple Properties. The portfolio includes office towers in Detroit, movie studios and a 40-acre complex near Toronto anchored by the Pickering Casino Resort. Apostolopoulos did not respond Wednesday to an interview request.

TriBro Studios, the family’s collection of sound stages in the Toronto area, count Disney, Bell Media and Netflix as clients. The studios include an industrial site, ‘The Pit,’ that can be flooded and serves as a backdrop for science fiction, horror and action shoots.

In Pickering, Triple used a casino run by Great Canadian Entertainment as the anchor for a larger development featuring a hotel, restaurants and a concert venue that will play host to singer Bryan Adams in April. Apostolopoulos, along with potential lenders that include Royal Bank of Canada, see a similar real-estate play in Washington’s football team, which current owner Daniel Snyder acquired in 1999 for US$800-million, according to two sources familiar with the potential buyer’s plans.

Washington’s current stadium, FedEx Field, opened in 1997 and is considered dated. Snyder owns the property and has proposed moving to a new site within the city, or in nearby Maryland or Virginia. Redevelopment plans were put on hold after the NFL fined Snyder US$10-million in 2021 following an investigation into sexual harassment and other workplace issues at the Commanders. Last November, Snyder announced he would sell all or part of the team.

If he wins the auction, Apostolopoulos plans to build a new stadium near Washington and redevelop FedEx Field and the team’s practice facility in Virginia, potentially making US$1-billion on the real estate, according to sources. They said the Commanders consistently turn a profit on television revenues, and are expected to increase revenues from ticket and merchandise sales if a new owner can restore fan interest in a former marquee franchise that has won three Super Bowls.

The Commanders – rebranded in 2022 after Snyder yielded to years of protests over the name Redskins – had the lowest home attendance in the NFL last year, selling 85 per cent of seats. No other team sold less than 92 per cent of tickets to home games.

Along with real estate, Apostolopoulos runs a private equity fund, Six Ventures Inc. One of the fund’s investments is credit card and expense management company Caary Capital, which services small to medium-sized businesses. As part of Caary’s launch, Apostolopoulos offered advice to entrepreneurs.

“You will get 1,000 defeats in business. Every time you get defeated, it will make you stronger. Stay with it. Keep rolling. Don’t give up,” he said. “Oh, and don’t do bad deals.”

In Pontiac, Mich., Apostolopoulos’s father acquired the former home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions – the Silverdome – by making a lowball offer in an auction for the city-owned stadium after the football team moved downtown. The new owner paid less than 2 per cent of the building’s US$55-million construction cost in 1975.

The Apostolopoulos family revived the abandoned facility by booking boxing, monster truck shows and concerts. However, the Silverdome’s roof partly collapsed in 2013 after a snowfall, and the building was torn down in 2017. Triple enticed Amazon into opening a warehouse on the site in 2021, the same year Andreas Apostolopoulos passed away at the age of 69.

Heirs to Canadian real-estate fortunes are also among the leading contenders to acquire the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, which went up for sale last November following the death of owner Eugene Melnyk.

The Toronto-based Kimel family, who run developer Harlo Capital, Vaughan-based Remington Group president Christopher Bratty and Ottawa-based Roger Greenberg, executive chair of Minto Group, have all shown interest in the Senators. The club could fetch more than US$900-million, the highest price paid for an NHL team, with the new owner expected to attempt to increase the club’s revenues by moving from the suburbs to a new, downtown arena.