For many in the investors group, buying into the Chicago Bulls in 1985 was a way to fulfill a fantasy.
At the time of the purchase, the National Basketball Association was hardly a business juggernaut. The league was just 48 months removed from a time when a handful of franchises teetered on the brink of folding due to skyrocketing player salaries, fan apathy and dismal television ratings.Commissioner David Stern was still settling into his office and Michael Jordan had a full head of hair and was playing in the shadows of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
A group of businessmen led by Jerry Reinsdorf had some extra cash and the Bulls looked like a fun investment. Little did they know that Jordan would become one of most recognizable people in the world and the Bulls would dominate the NBA for seven years.
"We never could have dreamed that all this would happen," said Norman Jacobs, president of the Evanston, Illinois-based Century Publishing, the company that owns Inside Sports Magazine, and a member of the group of investors. "There were only 6,000 to 7,000 fans in the stands and Michael Jordan was not really that well known."
Things are different now. The Bulls, tied at two games with the Utah Jazz in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, are a few wins away from their fifth championship in the 1990s, and every Bulls game played at the three-year-old United Center has been a sellout.
Ticket sales isn't the only thing that's gone up.
In 1985, the group spent $9.2 million to buy 65 percent of a franchise worth $16 million. The 29 partners now totally own a franchise worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $180 million.
And what have been the rewards for the partners? Free courtside tickets? Cocktail parties with the players? National television exposure?
Hardly. The Bulls are a limited partnership, and the power rests with just one man: Reinsdorf.
"Jerry runs the business. We all understood that when we entered into this partnership," said Allan Muchin, a partner in the law firm of White Muchin & Zavis and a member of the limited partnership.
In addition to Reinsdorf, Jacobs and Muchin, other owners include Lester Crown and his family; Lamar Hunt, the Texas businessman who also owns the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs; real estate investor Sam Zell; and Bill Wirtz, who also owns the Chicago Blackhawks.