John W. Stanton has been the man in charge of the Seattle Mariners since August 2016, serving as president, CEO, and the club’s designated control person with MLB. He’s not a traditional majority owner — instead, he leads a group of roughly 17 local investors structured as a limited partnership, with no single dominant shareholder. That setup is intentional, and it makes him stand out among MLB’s 30 ownership groups.
Ownership at a Glance
- Control person: John W. Stanton
- Ownership entity: First Avenue Entertainment LLLP
- Group in place since: 2016
- Purchase price: $661 million
- Current franchise value (Forbes, March 2026): $2.35 billion
- Stanton’s estimated net worth: $2.4 billion
- Value increase since purchase: 3.6x (nominal)
Who Is John Stanton?
Stanton, 70, is a telecom entrepreneur who built his fortune from scratch in the Seattle area. He graduated from Whitman College and earned an MBA from Harvard. He was a key executive at McCaw Cellular, then founded Western Wireless in 1994 — whose subsidiary VoiceStream Wireless was eventually sold to Deutsche Telekom and became T-Mobile USA. In 2006 he founded Trilogy Equity Partners, a venture capital firm in Bellevue where he still serves as managing director.
Forbes puts his net worth at $2.4 billion, ranking him No. 1,755 on the 2026 Billionaires list. He holds stakes in Microsoft and Costco Wholesale, on top of his telecom business interests. His wealth is self-made, not inherited.
How He Got the Team
In 2016, Stanton led the group that bought the majority stake in the Mariners from Nintendo for $661 million. Nintendo had originally purchased the team in 1992 for $125 million — with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi personally contributing $75 million — specifically to prevent the franchise from leaving Seattle. When Nintendo sold, it kept a 10% stake, meaning the company behind Mario is still a Mariners partner in 2026.
Every Time the Mariners Changed Hands
- 1976 — Kaye-Smith Group (including actor Danny Kaye): $7M expansion franchise
- 1981 — George Argyros: $13.1M (90% for $10.2M, remaining 10% for $2.9M)
- 1989 — Jeff Smulyan & Emmis Broadcasting: $76M (Emmis 50%, Morgan Stanley 25%, Smulyan 15%, Michael Browning 10%)
- 1992 — Nintendo of America / The Baseball Club of Seattle LP: $125M — Yamauchi personally put in $75M to keep the team in Seattle
- 2016 — First Avenue Entertainment LLLP (John Stanton): $661M for the majority stake; Nintendo retained 10%; implied club valuation at the time: $1.4 billion
What Else Stanton Controls
Beyond the Mariners, Stanton runs Trilogy Equity Partners and Trilogy International Partners, both focused on venture capital and telecom. The Mariners are his primary sports asset, but he also holds positions in tech and retail companies across the Pacific Northwest.
The ownership group’s structure is genuinely unusual for MLB: no majority owner, just a limited partnership of local investors with Stanton as the designated control person. Chris Larson, a former Microsoft executive, has historically been the group’s largest individual investor. In May 2025, Panos Panay (former Microsoft exec, now Amazon SVP) and Mary Panay joined as limited partners.
Where to Watch the Games
The Mariners’ broadcast setup changed significantly in 2026. After nearly four decades, ROOT Sports Northwest went dark at the end of the 2025 season. The timing was striking: in December 2023, the club had bought the remaining 29% from Warner Bros. Discovery to own 100% of ROOT — then shut it down two years later. Local broadcasts are now produced and distributed by MLB Local Media. The product is Mariners.TV, a direct-to-market streaming service with no local blackouts, priced at $19.99/month or $99.99/season, plus games on linear TV. The MLB model pays roughly half of what the old ROOT contract did.
Where the Mariners Rank Among MLB’s 30 Ownership Groups
- By franchise value: #16 of 30
- By purchase price paid: #10 of 27
- By owner’s personal net worth: #16 of 21
- By years leading the club: #24 of 30
Note: purchase prices are nominal and not adjusted for inflation. Comparing a 1981 price to a 2026 valuation overstates the real gain.
Numbers Worth Talking About
- The Mariners sold for $13.1 million in 1981. Forbes values them at $2.35 billion in 2026.
- Nintendo bought the team for $125M in 1992 to keep it in Seattle — and still owns 10% of it today.
- The first ownership group, in 1976, included comedian and actor Danny Kaye.
- Stanton’s group deliberately has no majority owner — roughly 17 local investors, with Stanton as control person by designation.
- The Mariners bought 100% of ROOT Sports Northwest in December 2023 and shut it down by the end of 2025.
- Under Stanton’s watch, the franchise has leaned heavily on international talent — Julio Rodríguez is the face of the club today, while Edgar Martínez, a Puerto Rican legend, remains the franchise’s all-time icon and lends his name to the AL’s annual award for best designated hitter.
