The Titans announced on Saturday that their long-simmering ownership issue finally has been resolved. Per a league source, the transactions made among the three branches of the family of team founder Bud Adams have indeed resolved all concerns from the NFL’s perspective.
It took a little effort to get there, however.
As the source explained it, ill will between controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and her sister, Susie Adams Smith, had created an impasse regarding the critical question of whether one of the three families would possess full, unconditional, and unequivocal control over all team matters.
Smith recently found a buyer for her share of KSA Industries, the company that owns and operates the Titans and other family businesses. The deal had been negotiated, and the contract had been signed.
At that point, Commissioner Roger Goodell got involved. Per the source, Goodell implored the Smith sisters to resolve their differences. He urged for Strunk to make the same offer to Smith that Smith had received from a non-family member, and he urged Smith to accept it.
Appropriate business maneuverings were made to allow the two remaining branches of the family to expand their holdings from 33 to 50 percent, with Strunk having the proper control over the team that the league demands and Smith getting the same financial package she would have gotten by selling her interest on the market.
It wasn’t simple. The source says, for example, that the league had to grant an exemption to the debt ceiling that applies to each team, with an agreement from Strunk that she’d return to compliance by 2028.
But it worked. A problem that had existed for years has finally been resolved.
