With the addition of Sacramento Republic FC, Major League Soccer will gain a new squad of players, a new stadium, and a new home city to its ranks. It will also add another billionaire investor. That would be Ron Burkle, the LA private equity mogul and Pittsburgh Penguins owner who is also majority owner of the Sacramento team that MLS announced a week ago, to begin play in 2022.



An MLS team seems like a normal investment for Burkle to be making on its face; after all, plenty of billionaires the world over own sports teams. But MLS ownership is unique in several respects, including one big one: the league has never turned a profit in its history.



For big-money investors like Burkle, what’s the appeal?



The answer is multifaceted, and reflective of the complexity of modern sports economics. Burkle and others aren’t merely buying teams. They’re buying into profitable companion businesses as well. At its simplest, an MLS club’s...