Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Last week, Forbes released its annual list of the world’s billionaires, citing over 1,200 people who get to enjoy some of life’s great toys, from yachts and private jets to plush vacation homes.  The toy of choice for some: sports.
If you’re a fan, being a billionaire means you can do even better than prime seats, valet parking and wait service. You can buy the team. In fact, if you’re Paul Allen, the original No. 2 guy at Microsoft worth $14.2 billion, you don’t even have to choose between the Pacific Northwest’s NBA and NFL franchises. You can have both.
Allen, ranked No. 48 on this year’s Forbes billionaires list (46 spots behind his old partner, Bill Gates), owns both the Portland Trail Blazers and SeattleSeahawks. That’s $1.4 billion in sports properties on his portfolio.
But while Allen’s net worth is enough to make him America’s wealthiest sports owner, its only good enough for No. 3 globally. Leading the pack of a list that extends across the world – from Asia to Europe to the U.S. – is India’s Mukesh Ambani, whose $22.3 billion net worth makes him the second-richest man in Asia and 19th-richest in the world. The chairman of oil & gas conglomerate Reliance Industries is, unsurprisingly, a major fan of cricket, India’s most popular sport. In 2008 he bought the Indian Premier League’s Mumbai Indians. Ambani and Reliance have taken advantage of player auctions to upgrade the team, which won the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in 2011.
Right behind Ambani: Ukrainian mining and steel tycoon Rinat Akhmetov (the world’s 39th richest person with a net worth of $16 billion), owner of FC Shakhtar Donesk, a soccer club in the Ukrainian Premier League that became the only team from Ukraine to capture a UEFA Cup championship in 2009.
In generating our list of the world’s richest sports owners, we stayed clear of those owning small minority stakes or who are otherwise uninvolved in running team operations. That list would include John Malone of Liberty Media, which owns the Atlanta Braves, and David Thomson of Thomson Reuters, which owns the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets through True North Sports & Entertainment.
Others making the cut: Russians Mikhail Prokhorov (worth $13.2 billion), owner of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and Roman Abramovich ($12.1 billion), who controls Chelsea F. C of the English Premier League. The U.S. contingent is concentrated in the NBA: Miami Heat’s Micky Arison ($4.7 billion) and the Orlando Magic’s Richard DeVos $5 billion), along with the multi-team sports tycoons Allen and Philip Anchutz ($7 billion).
WRITTEN BY
Tom Van Riper, Forbes Staff
I cover the business of sports for Forbes.
& FULL STORY HERE
