Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has much to celebrate as his team plays in this weekend’s Super Bowl, but it has been a long road for him to get here.
Key Details
- Film producer and billionaire Jeffrey Lurie purchased the Philadelphia Eagles for $185 million in the 1990s. Now he is the owner of the 10th most valuable NFL team, having transformed the franchise into a Super Bowl-winner.
- Lurie, a lifelong sports fan who grew up rooting for the then-Boston Patriots, would come to transform a second-rate squad into the pride of the city.
- The Philadelphia Eagles are worth $4.9 billion, and Lurie himself is worth $4.4 billion, according to Forbes.
- His team is scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs in this Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII. This marks the fourth time the team has competed, with only one win in Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots.
Why It’s Important
The transformation of the Philadelphia Eagles into a Super Bowl-competing team didn’t happen overnight. There were many setbacks and risks. Lurie himself had to take out a nine-figure loan to purchase the team, and the slow process of turning the team around took decades. He invested heavily in new sports facilities, building the $512-million Lincoln Financial Field. He went as far as to risk firing his successful 14-year head coach Andy Reid in 2012.
Lurie took significant risks, invested in his team, made hard decisions, and over time his approach to leadership worked. He understands that success requires the willingness to take chances and that it is worth it. “To me, there is no substitute for the joy of winning,” he says.
Notable Quote
“You’ve got to make changes in business and after a certain period of time, anything can become stale. But Jeffrey saw that that was only going to take them so far. That takes a lot of courage, frankly, on the part of the owner to make a change when things aren’t going terribly because you believe you can make a decision to make things go better,” Sportscorp president Marc Ganis told Forbes.
