Nineteen different NFL owners -- more than half the league -- are billionaires according to a recent articles on Forbes.
The financial news magazine broke out all the richest owners in sports and took a sport-by-sport look at different ownership wealth levels. The NFL doesn't have sports' richest owners; Steve Ballmer -- Clippers owner, noted technology maven and general crazy person -- holds the title of wealthiest owner ($23.5 billion) in sports.
Cricket (!) comes in second, with Mumbai Indians owner Mukesh Ambani ($19.3 billion) sitting as one of three billionaires in the Indian Premier League, according to Forbes.
The NFL has two of the five richest guys however, with Seahawks owner Paul Allen ($17.5 billion) and Steven Ross ($12 billion) of the Dolphins coming in third and fifth, respectively.
Stan Kroenke ($7.7 billion) is the third-richest NFL owner AND the second-richest NBA owner, although once the Los Angeles Rams stadium gets built he might move up the list pretty quickly. Worth noting: he technically isn't an owner of the Nuggets after divesting his shares in order to own the Rams.
It's entirely possible his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, who technically owns the Nuggets and is an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune, is more wealthy than Stan.
Forbes lists Shad Khan of the Jaguars ($5.9 billion) and Jerry Jones of the Cowboys ($5.5 billion) as the next-wealthiest NFL owners.
Three female owners are listed, however. Joan Tisch ($3.3 billion), Denise York ($1.9 billion) and Martha Ford ($1.3 billion). So go ahead and count the Giants, 49ers and Lions among teams with billionaire owners.
The article doesn't actually break down all 19 of the NFL owners who are worth more than a billion, but given the average valuation of an NFL franchise is $2 billion, it's not hard to fathom.
You have to hit a 63-person slideshow to see them (sigh). Fortunately we did the dirty work.
Also on the list:
Robert Kraft, Patriots, 19th ($4.8 billion)
Terry Pegula, Bills, 24th ($4 billion)
Bob McNair, Texans, 27th ($3.3 billion)
Steve Bisciotti, Ravens, 32nd ($3 billion)
Arthur Blank, Falcons, 35th ($3.2 billion)
Jim Irsay, Colts, 37th ($2.3 billion)
Jimmy Haslam, Browns, 37th ($2.3 billion)
Tom Benson, Saints, 39th ($2.2 billion)
Dan Snyder, Redskins, 44th ($2.1 billion)
Jeff Lurie, Eagles, 50th ($1.8 billion)
Dean Spanos, Chargers, 51st ($1.7 billion)
Just for some perspective, Michael Jordan is 60th on this list and Randy Lerner, former Browns owner, is 63rd.
It pays pretty well to own a sports team.
