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David Blitzer
American investor and sports team owner (born 1969) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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David Scott Blitzer (born September 7, 1969) is an American investor and sports team owner. Blitzer is the chairman of the private equity firm Blackstone's tactical opportunities division and managing partner of the New Jersey Devils ice hockey team and the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. He additionally owns several association football clubs under Global Football Holdings and holds minority stakes in the Cleveland Guardians baseball team and the Washington Commanders American football team. Blitzer is the first person to own team equity in five major professional sports leagues of the U.S.
Blitzer graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Blackstone in 1991, where he served as the firm's global head of tactical opportunities from 2012 until transitioning to chairman in 2024. He and Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris are frequent partners, with the pair entering sports business together in 2011 and establishing Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in 2017. Blitzer has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion as of 2025[update].
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Early life and Blackstone
Blitzer was born on September 7, 1969, in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. He graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1987 and graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.[1] Blitzer joined the private equity firm Blackstone shortly after graduation and worked out of London from 2001 to 2011 to oversee the company's interests in Europe.[2] He is a member of their management committee and headed their global Tactical Opportunities group from 2012 until stepping down and becoming chairman in November 2024.[3][4]
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Blitzer is co-managing partner of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), which owns the basketball team Philadelphia 76ers and the ice hockey New Jersey Devils.
Blitzer began contemplating investing in sports after meeting Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris in 2008 at The Punch Bowl, a pub in London.[5] By 2011, those talks led to the pair forming an investment group that purchased the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for $280 million.[6][7] Other initial members of the group included Art Wrubel, Jason Levien, Adam Aron, Martin Geller, David Heller, James Lassiter, Marc Leder, Michael Rubin, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Erick Thohir.[8][9] In August 2013, Blitzer and Harris purchased the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and their arena, the Prudential Center, for $320 million.[10] Blitzer and investor David Abrams headed a group that owned 50% of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, from 2014 until selling to Diamond Baseball Holdings in 2021.[11][12]
Blitzer co-founded Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment with Harris in 2017. In addition to the 76ers and Devils, the company also owns the NBA G League's Delaware Blue Coats, the American Hockey League's Utica Comets, esports team Dignitas of New Meta Entertainment,[13][14] HBSE Real Estate, sports tech venture capital firm HBSE Ventures,[15] and marketing, hospitality, and event ticketing company Elevate Sports Ventures.[16] In January 2022, Blitzer and Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith purchased Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer (MLS) and America First Field, which included the affiliated Real Monarchs and Zions Bank Stadium.[17][18] The pair also reestablished the Utah Royals of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which had gone defunct in 2020 and became the Kansas City Current.[19] He sold controlling interest in Real Salt Lake, the Royals, and America First Field to Gail Miller in April 2025, with him remaining as a minority investor.[20] Blitzer purchased a 25 percent stake in the MLB's Cleveland Guardians in June 2022, with an option to acquire controlling interest in 2028.[21][22] Blitzer is the first person to hold team equity in five major professional sports leagues of North America: the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLS, and MLB.[23]
Blitzer purchased an 18% stake in the English football club Crystal Palace in 2015.[24][25] He later formed Global Football Holdings, which has invested in Estoril Praia (Portugal),[26] Alcorcón (Spain),[27] Beveren (Belgium),[28] FC Augsburg (Germany),[29] ADO Den Haag (Netherlands),[26] and Brøndby (Denmark).[30] In 2020, Blitzer and Harris bought a $140 million stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL).[31] In 2023, he was a part of another group led by Harris that purchased the NFL's Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion.[32][33] The same year, Blitzer invested in the return of SlamBall, a basketball league combining elements of other sports,[34] and bought a minority stake in Joe Gibbs Racing by way of HBSE in 2023.[35] He was named to the NHL's Executive Committee in October 2023, which is responsible for vetting new ownership applications, collective bargaining, and league expansion.[36] Blitzer and professional golfer Tiger Woods are owners of the Jupiter Links Golf Club of the virtual golf league TGL, founded in 2023.[37]
In 2024, he sold his stake in the Steelers to Art Rooney II and Thomas Tull.[38] Blitzer is a member of College Sports Tomorrow, a group formed in 2024 consisting of 20 pro team owners, league executives, and college administrators proposing an overhaul to college football, including abolishing conferences and reorganizing Power Five schools in seven divisions of ten each with a system of promotion and relegation for the rest, in addition to changes to NIL deals and the transfer portal.[39] Blitzer and Harris have also invested in youth sports brands, forming Unrivaled Sports as a parent company in March 2024 with capital from The Chernin Group.[40][41] He was among a group of investors in Major League Table Tennis and LOVB Pro, a women's indoor volleyball league, in 2024 and the Snow League, a snowboarding and freestyle skiing league created by Shaun White, in 2025.[42][43][44] In June 2025, HBSE was awarded a Philadelphia WNBA team to begin play in 2030.[45]
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Personal life
Blitzer is Jewish.[46] He is married to Allison (née Ross) Blitzer; they have five children.[47] His net worth was estimated in June 2025 to be $3.6 billion.[48] Blitzer's father-in-law, Stuart Ross, who once owned the North American rights to The Smurfs franchise, was convicted of extortion in 2010 and sentenced to five years of probation after trying to extort $11 million from Blitzer.[49][50]
Blitzer founded the Blitzer Family Foundation in 2014.[51] He is on the board of trustees of Mount Sinai Health System and Wharton School and is a donor to Hillel International, an organization helping Jewish students.[52] He participated in sports business panels hosted by the Wharton School in 2019 and Sportico in 2022.[53][54]
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