SPORTS STARS TOP OF THE SHOPS

The business of sports is booming, with teams in several leagues changing hands for record prices and athletes pulling in more than ever, both on and off the field. There are 39 billionaires whose wealth comes primarily from sports, up from 16 a decade ago, including a dozen newcomers over the past year. Here are some of the most notable.

Larry Tanenbaum

$2 bil • Construction, sports teams • Canada As chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Tanenbaum owns a piece of nearly all of Toronto’s sports teams—the Maple Leafs (NHL), Raptors (NBA), Toronto FC (MLS) and 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.

Mark Davis

$1.9 bil • Las Vegas Raiders • U.S.

Football is the only business Davis has ever known, having grown 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

$1.7 bil • Tennessee Titans • U.S.

Adams Strunk wrested control of the Tennessee Titans in 2015, two years after the death of her father, Bud Adams. Her 50% stake has doubled in value since she took over.

Irving Grousbeck

$1.6 bil • Cable, Boston Celtics • 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

$1.3 bil • New York Yankees • U.S. Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal $1.3 bil • New York Yankees • U.S.

Jessica Steinbrenner

$1.3 bil • New York Yankees • U.S.

The 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

$1.1 bil • Golf • 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—good enough for him to join LeBron James as the only two active athlete billionaires.

Toto Wolff

$1 bil • Formula 1 • Austria

The star of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, Wolff is team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team. A former driver, he bought into the Formula 1 team in 2013, long before team values skyrocketed, and has led Mercedes to eight straight Constructors’ Championships.

Inflation is eating into paychecks and turbulent markets are hitting retirement savings, but consumers have kept spending. No one has prospered more than the billionaires peddling goods to everyday people, including these new members of the ten-figure ranks.

Claudio Del Vecchio

$3.5 bil • Luxottica • U.S.

Del Vecchio—the former CEO and majority owner of clothing retailer Brooks Brothers until it filed for bankruptcy in 2020—inherited a stake in eyewear giant Luxottica after his father, Leonardo Del Vecchio, died in June 2022. His six siblings and his stepmother are equally wealthy.

Fan Daidi

$3.5 bil • Skin care • China

Fan is cofounder, executive director and chief science officer of Giant Biogene Holding, which makes collagen and other skin care products. It listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November. She also serves as dean of the school of chemical engineering at Northwest University in Xi’an.

Andrey Krivenko

$2.1 bil • Retail • Russia

In 2012, Krivenko opened four stores called VkusVill (Taste Town) to sell fresh products with short shelf lives. Now among Russia’s fastestgrowing retailers, it has more than 1,300 stores. He planned to take it public until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Aleš Zavoral

$2 bil • E-commerce • Czech Republic

His Prague-based Alza.cz–known for its green alien mascot, “Alzak”–sold some $2 billion (est. revenue) worth of computers, TVs, appliances and other goods throughout Europe in 2021. Zavoral founded the business in 1994.

Hari Krishan Agarwal

$1.1 bil • Shoes • India

He owns 74% of budget shoemaker Campus Activewear, which sells millions of men’s, women’s and kids’ sports shoes to 20,000 retailers across 650 cities in India. A third of the Delhi company’s products are priced below $13.

Tsao Ter-fung

$1.1 bil • Food • Taiwan

After acquiring Quaker Oats’ Taiwan assets and establishing Standard Foods in 1986, Tsao turned it into a major supplier of cereal, cooking oil and milk-based beverages. The 77-year-old handed the chief executive role to son Arthur Tsao in 2019 but remains chairman.

David Tran

$1 bil • Hot sauce • U.S.

A refugee from Vietnam, Tran started selling his Sriracha hot sauce in Los Angeles in 1980; now the $130 million (est. sales) company’s bottles with the rooster logo and green cap ºare a household staple across America.

Xie Bingzheng

$1 bil • Apparel • China

Chinese consumers have a soft spot for international fashion brands, so it’s not surprising that Xie gave his golf apparel business a foreignsounding name: Biem.L.Fdlkk Garment. Shares of the company took flight in recent months as Covid restrictions were lifted.