A registered fund built on
a different conviction.
The Champion Fund is not a venture fund, a fundraising platform, or a play on marquee domestic franchise assets at today’s prices. It is a professionally managed, SEC-registered investment fund — organized under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — offering diversified exposure to the global sports economy through a disciplined, multi-asset framework open to all investors.
Where we invest —
and where we don’t focus.
Institutional capital has spent the last decade concentrating heavily in marquee American sports franchises — NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL. The Champion Fund doesn’t exclude U.S.-based sports investments, but our strategy is deliberately focused on the broader global sports ecosystem: sports media and technology, international clubs, sports ventures, real estate, and thematic funds operating in segments of the sports economy where institutional capital is still underrepresented.
That’s not because we believe U.S. sports assets are bad investments. It’s because we believe the most compelling risk-adjusted opportunities today are in the parts of the sports economy that large institutional funds haven’t fully reached – and that’s where the Champion Fund was built to operate.
The Team
The Champion Fund is led by two founders who have spent their careers at the intersection of sports, business, and investment — one as a championship-winning NFL player turned owner and operator, the other as a professional athlete turned physiologist, entrepreneur, and fund manager.
Marques Colston
Marques Colston is the New Orleans Saints’ all-time leading receiver and a Super Bowl XLIV champion — and has spent the years since building a record in business and investment that rivals his career on the field. As co-owner and operator of two professional sports franchises, he negotiated commercial partnerships with DraftKings, CBS, Twitter, and William Hill. He co-founded the Venture Playbook at Columbia Business School, an executive education program in venture investing for professional athletes, and holds Series 7 and Series 66 securities licenses. He has served as a licensed Financial Advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott and as Managing Director for Virtua Health's Center for Innovation. He currently sits on the board of Soulpower Acquisition Corp (NYSE: SOUL) and serves as Managing Partner of Champion Capital, the parent firm of The Champion Fund.
Nick Edwards
Nick Edwards has spent more than fifteen years operating inside professional sports and building companies at the intersection of sports, health, and private capital. As Team Physiologist for five professional sports franchises — across the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS — he built deep relationships and a front-row understanding of how elite sports organizations run. In parallel, he built and led multiple companies: Eden Equity Partners (private equity), Loop Care Platform (health technology, as Chief Innovation Officer), and BisonX Startup Studio (innovation accelerator). He holds an academic foundation in clinical research from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he served as Director of Exercise-Medical Integration and Chief Science Officer. He currently serves as Portfolio Manager of Champion Fund and Managing Partner, Capital Markets and Investments at Champion Capital, the parent firm of The Champion Fund.
Operations & Governance
Fund Operations Administration
Board of Trustees
Teri SmithNFLPA
Matt LedererComcast
David CluteFinance Executive
Jesse RandallSweaterMarques ColstonChampion CapitalThe 40 Act interval fund:
what it means and why it matters.
The Champion Fund is organized as an interval fund under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — a structure that comes with mandatory SEC oversight, required disclosures, and investor protections built into the fund by law.
SEC Registration
Ongoing reporting, disclosure, and governance requirements under federal securities law — the same framework governing the industry’s most established investment companies
Mandatory Liquidity
Semi-annual repurchase offers required by law — not offered at management’s discretion, but required by regulation
Open Access
Accredited and non-accredited investors both eligible — no institutional minimums
The Fund makes semi-annual repurchase offers of at least 5% of net assets per interval, as required by its interval fund structure. If redemption requests exceed the cap, they are fulfilled pro-rata. This is a standard, expected feature of the structure — one that exists because the Fund’s underlying assets are private and illiquid. Full details are in the prospectus.
The Champion Fund shares will be redeemable twice a year, with the option to redeem up to 5% of outstanding shares at each interval. These offerings may be oversubscribed, meaning investors may not be able to redeem as many shares as they request during each semi-annual redemption window.
Fund Details
Fund Details
How We Allocate:
A Rules-based Framework
The Champion Fund deploys capital across five categories of the global sports economy — each an area where we believe the most compelling risk-adjusted opportunities remain underserved by institutional capital.
- Sports Ventures25%
- Sports Assets25%
- Media and Services20%
- Real Estate & Hospitality20%
- Thematic Funds10%
- Sports Ventures25%
Growth-stage businesses redefining how sports are played, watched, and monetized globally.
- Sports Assets25%
Teams, clubs, leagues, and sports properties with long-term appreciation potential across global markets.
- Media and Services20%
Established media, content, and service businesses with sports adjacency and institutional-quality fundamentals.
- Real Estate & Hospitality20%
Sports-driven real estate, venue assets, and hospitality at the intersection of fandom and capital.
- Thematic Funds10%
Curated LP and GP stakes in sector-focused funds with complementary sports ecosystem exposure.
Allocations are targets and subject to change. See the Prospectus for full details.
Current Portfolio
Sports Illustrated Tickets
SI Tickets is a blockchain-backed digital ticketing platform that has raised over $87 million and secured a $50 million credit facility in 2025, serving professional leagues and clubs globally. The fund’s position reflects direct exposure to the technology infrastructure powering modern fan engagement.
View company
Ipswich Town FC
Ipswich Town FC is a Premier League club that has attracted institutional investors including Avenue Sports Fund and Bright Path Sports Partners. The fund’s position reflects the Sports Assets allocation and the long-term commercial opportunity in global football clubs.
View company
Fathead
Fathead is the market-leading officially licensed sports wall graphics and memorabilia brand, with licensing relationships spanning the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Acquired in 2023 by a group of former athletes, the company operates at the intersection of sports consumer products and fan culture.
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Emerging
Emerging is a venture capital fund investing in the ‘sportstainment’ economy — immersive, experience-driven businesses including Puttshack, F1 Arcade, and Batbox. The fund’s LP position in Emerging provides exposure to next-generation fan experience businesses at the intersection of sport, entertainment, and real estate.
View companyWhere we are —
and why that’s the point.
The Champion Fund is in its early stages. We say that plainly because we believe it matters to the investors we want. Early access to an institutionally structured alternative fund — before the category is fully discovered and before entry terms reflect it — is itself part of the opportunity. We are actively establishing institutional anchor investor relationships, and investors who come in now do so at founding-investor terms in a fund built from day one for long-term institutional standards. There is no guarantee that early-stage investment in the Fund will result in favorable outcomes. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Common Questions
Public market sports investments trade with equity market volatility and reflect investor sentiment as much as underlying asset value. The Champion Fund invests directly in private sports assets, ventures, and funds — positions not correlated to daily market movements and not accessible through public markets. The 40 Act interval fund structure provides private market exposure that is traditionally not accessible to retail investors, with regulated access and mandatory liquidity.
The Fund makes semi-annual repurchase offers of at least 5% of net assets per interval. If requests exceed that cap, they are fulfilled on a pro-rata basis — each investor receives a proportional share of the available pool. This is a standard feature of the interval fund structure, disclosed in full in the prospectus. Investors should plan for the possibility that complete redemption may require more than one window.
Track records reflect past performance in markets that no longer exist at the same entry points. The Champion Fund is structured to institutional standards from day one — registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, governed and regulated — with the positioning of a founding investor. That combination is unavailable once the fund is no longer new. Past performance is not indicative of future results. There is no guarantee that early investment in this Fund will produce favorable outcomes.
Insights
Perspectives from the team building the fund.
The Rule Changes That Opened Sports to Institutional Capital, and Why They Matter
Sports investing did not become institutionally accessible because the assets changed. What changed was the rules governing who could own them, and rule changes are valuation events.
Read more InsightsWhat It Actually Means When an Asset Class Gets Institutionalized
Institutionalization is not simply a description of who is buying. It is a description of a process, with specific consequences for everyone who participates, and it has not touched the full sports ecosystem equally.
Read more InsightsWhy Fixed Supply Makes Sports Assets Unlike Anything Else in the Portfolio
In sports, scarcity is not a marketing claim. It is policy. Why policy-enforced scarcity is more durable than natural scarcity, and what that means for the value equation.
Read moreReady to invest in
WHAT COMES NEXT?
SEC-regulated. Institutionally structured. Open to all investors. The Champion Fund offers access to the global sports economy — starting at $500.