Paying to Win

Just ask new resident of the King’s Road, Todd Boehly, who, since becoming the chairman of Chelsea Football Club in June 2022, has spent an astronomical £1 billion in player transfer fees alone.

Unless you are a plucky underdog with an eye for a bargain, such as the Hollywood owners of Wrexham FC Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, these days the dream of owning a professional sports team is almost entirely the preserve of petrostates and the corporate world’s very richest individuals.

According to a report by UBS and PwC, in 2006, you could buy an American Major League sports team for $200 million, yet last year Walmart heir Rob Walton had to fork out $4.65 billion to get his hands on the Denver Broncos. That same report found that, in 2016, 140 sports clubs from around the club were owned by billionaires. It’s a rich man’s sports world.     

Unlike with a traditional business, where the owner can turn a profit by cutting operating and staffing costs, in the business of sports entertainment, you have to be successful on the field of play if you want to reap the financial rewards off it, and for that, you need to invest vast sums of money on attracting the best players and building an ultra-modern stadium for fans to watch them play in. Not that the prospect has put off the people featured in this special report.

Whether they intend to make money, boost their public image or just want an expensive toy to show off to their friends, Leaders League profiles a handful of billionaires who are playing – and paying – to win in the world of professional sports.