[ad_1]
As team values and athlete earnings continue to climb, a dozen new billionaires have emerged from around the sports world. Some extend a family legacy while others cement their own place in history.
The playoff chances for the Los Angeles Lakers looked bleak in late February, with the team clinging to one of the final spots for the NBA’s play-in round and LeBron James suffering what was thought could be a season-ending foot injury.
Yet James miraculously returned to the court a month later, saying a doctor had told him he was “healing faster than anybody before they’ve seen with the injury.” The Lakers have won three of four games since, and appear likely to be playoff-bound with a handful of games to play.
It’s just the latest in a long string of superhuman feats James has accomplished since entering the NBA in 2003—both on and off the court. In June, Forbes named him a billionaire, making James and Tiger Woods the first-ever athletes to hit a ten-digit net worth while still active in their respective sports.
James’ and Woods’ fortunes are anchored by massive and sustained earnings across two decades, both on the field of play through unparalleled athletic success and with endorsement deals equal to their icon status. Along the way, each has used the cash to build an impressive investment portfolio.
The duo headline a group of 12 newcomers to the 2023 World’s Billionaires ranking who earned their spots thanks to the booming business of sports. In particular, these dozen new billionaires can thank the financial windfall that has come from ballooning media rights deals, which have sent team values and athlete earnings sky-high across several leagues. And with good reason: Last year, 94 of the 100 most-watched linear telecasts in the United States were sporting events. That doesn’t even include the value of new media like Netflix, which turned Toto Wolff, team principal and part-owner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, into a celebrity billionaire with the effect of its Drive to Survive docuseries on the value of Formula 1 teams.
For several, owning a sports team is proving to be a centerpiece asset in a family dynasty. The Las Vegas Raiders’ Mark Davis, the Tennessee Titans’ Amy Adams Strunk and the three children of longtime New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner all inherited ownership of their respective teams and have made careers of managing them, with varying levels of success. Yet since taking over, all five have enjoyed double-digit returns, proving that triumph in sports business is not tied too closely to triumph on the playing field.
Unlike the stock-market volatility that has plagued many billionaires over the past year, there’s no indication that values and earnings in the sports world are headed anywhere except up for the foreseeable future—great news for not just these new sports billionaires but the new ones destined to follow.
Here are the newest sports billionaires on Forbes’ 2023 World’s Billionaires list, in net worth order.
(NET WORTHS ARE AS OF MARCH 10, 2023)
Robert “Woody” Johnson
Net worth: $3.4 billion | Team: New York Jets | Citizenship: U.S.
After four years as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the U.K., in 2021 Johnson returned to help manage his family’s assets, which include ownership of the NFL’s New York Jets and health products giant Johnson & Johnson.
Larry Tanenbaum
Net worth: $2 billion | Teams: Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Argonauts | Citizenship: Canada
As chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Tanenbaum owns a piece of all of Toronto’s major sports teams: the Maple Leafs (NHL), the Raptors (NBA), Toronto FC (MLS) and the Argonauts (Canadian Football League). He is also the owner and longtime CEO of construction company Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. and boasts a large real estate portfolio.
David Blitzer
Net worth: $1.9 billion | Teams: Cleveland Guardians, Real Salt Lake, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, Crystal Palace, Pittsburgh Steelers | Citizenship: U.S.
The Blackstone executive owns stakes in MLB’s Guardians and MLS’s Real Salt Lake, and in partnership with Apollo Global cofounder Josh Harris, he owns pieces of teams in the NBA (76ers), the NHL (Devils), the Premier League (Crystal Palace) and the NFL (Steelers).
Mark Davis
Net worth: $1.9 billion | Team: Las Vegas Raiders | Citizenship: U.S.
Football is the only business Davis has ever known, growing up around the Raiders as his father, Al, served as coach, then general manager and eventually principal owner of the NFL franchise. Mark took over upon his father’s death in 2011 and oversaw the team’s 2020 relocation to Las Vegas.
Amy Adams Strunk
Net worth: $1.7 billion | Team: Tennessee Titans | Citizenship: U.S.
One of a growing number of women joining the NFL’s ownership ranks, Adams Strunk wrestled control of the Tennessee Titans in 2015, two years after the death of her father, Bud Adams. Her 50% stake is now worth double what it was at the time. “I never thought—ever—that I would be running the football team,” she told Forbes in September.
Irving Grousbeck
Net worth: $1.6 billion | Team: Boston Celtics | Citizenship: U.S.
A cofounder of Continental Cablevision (later MediaOne), Grousbeck helped lead an investment group to buy the Boston Celtics for $360 million in 2003. Five years later, the storied franchise captured its first NBA championship in two decades. Today his 30% stake alone is worth $1.1 billion.
Hal Steinbrenner, Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal and Jessica Steinbrenner
Net worth: $1.3 billion each | Team: New York Yankees | Citizenship: U.S.
The New York Yankees, valued at $1.6 billion when George Steinbrenner died in 2010, are now worth $7.1 billion. The three Steinbrenner children each own a share of the MLB team, which is the league’s most valuable, plus pieces of broadcaster YES Network and MLS squad New York FC.
Tiger Woods
Net worth: $1.1 billion | Source of Wealth: Golf | Citizenship: U.S.
The golf legend reportedly turned down nine figures to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour. He doesn’t need the money. Over his three-decade career, Woods has raked in more than $1.7 billion in endorsements, tournament winnings and other income before taxes and agents’ fees—good enough for him to join James as one of only two active athlete billionaires.
LeBron James
Net worth: $1 billion | Source of Wealth: Basketball | Citizenship: U.S.
James, who broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record in February, continues to add digits to his fortune, too. A fixture atop Forbes’ highest-paid players list for nearly a decade, he’s set to make an estimated $124.5 million on and off the court this season from his Lakers contract and endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, AT&T and Pepsi. James has funneled his earnings into real estate, entertainment company SpringHill and stakes in Blaze Pizza, fitness company Tonal, a Major League Pickleball franchise and Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Boston Red Sox.
Toto Wolff
Net worth: $1 billion | Team: Mercedes-AMG Petronas | Citizenship: Austria
A star of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, Wolff is team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team. A former racecar driver, he bought into the Formula 1 team in 2013, long before team values skyrocketed, and led Mercedes to eight straight Constructors’ Championships.
MORE FROM FORBES
[ad_2]
Source_link
