CHARLESTON — Big-name former pro quarterbacks — Hall of Famer John Elway, Tim Tebow and Blake Bortles — have teamed up with Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy and other investors to buy property for special development districts anchored by professional sports stadiums.
Charleston could be the next city they’re eying.
The retired football stars launched Momentous Sports this month in partnership with Cathy’s private real estate firm, Four Stones, and Magnolia Hill Partners, an Orlando-based real estate investment firm. Momentous Sports, also founded in Orlando, focuses on sports team ownership and growing mixed-use developments around their stadiums, including housing, retail, hospitality and public spaces.
“Owning a team is great. Owning the land under it? Even better,” Elway, a former Denver Broncos star and team president as well as Pro Football Hall of Famer, told Forbes. “Momentous has a real strategy that combines both, and that is what drew me in. I have been around a lot of teams, buildings and deals. Momentous is not just another sports investment platform. It is built by competitors, for competitors.”
The first project is underway in Jacksonville, Fla., with a soccer-specific stadium that will house both men’s and women’s professional soccer Sporting Club Jacksonville teams.
Tim Tebow
Momentous is the lead investor for Sporting JAX, which plays in the United Soccer League along with the Charleston Battery. The Jacksonville franchise was announced in 2022, led by venture capitalist Ricky Caplin and Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback with the Florida Gators who also played professionally for the Broncos and four other NFL teams. Both teams play at University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium. Their new home field should open in 2026.
Bortles played eights seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He and Tebow grew up in Florida.
Development plans call for a 15,000-seat stadium surrounded by a mixed-use district and public spaces. Momentous is searching for the right property, with a former mall as one of 55 locations under consideration around Jacksonville.
Sporting JAX would be the model for future cities. Charleston and Omaha, Neb., are the next target markets, said Ammar Abu, a commercial real estate broker for Lee & Associates in the Nebraska and Iowa area.
Marley Hughes, CEO of Magnolia Hill Partners, told The Post and Courier that while he can’t comment publicly on the exact project, he “can confirm that Momentous is in discussions around a potential catalytic opportunity in Charleston.”
He added, “Charleston is truly one of my favorite cities in the world, and it would be an honor to bring a project here that delivers both community benefit and lasting impact.”
The CEO told Forbes that Momentous’ projects are “bigger than owning a team. It is about taking care of the places where people gather, and doing it in a way that creates long-term benefit for the surrounding community.”