Mahomes joins elite ranks of sports ownership, and he has to be the youngest, right?
Patrick Mahomes has joined a list of sports stars in the team-ownership game with Tuesday’s announcement about his new minority stake in the Kansas City Royals.
At 24, he might be the youngest owner of a major pro sports franchise ever.
Typically, players don’t buy into team ownership until the end of their playing careers, or after they retire — if they choose to do so at all. Mahomes just completed his third pro season with the Chiefs with a Super Bowl championship.
But he can afford it now. Earlier this month, he signed a contract extension that’s potentially worth more than a half-billion dollars.
The list of pro-sports ownership among current or retired athletes includes the likes of: LeBron James (part-owner of Liverpool in soccer’s Premier League); Serena and Venus Williams (part-owners of the Miami Dolphins); Michael Jordan (Charlotte Hornets); David Beckham (Inter Miami of MLS); Derek Jeter (part-owner of the Miami Marlins); Wayne Gretzky (former Phoenix Coyotes owner); Magic Johnson (former part-owner of L.A. Lakers now has a stake in the L.A. Dodgers, L.A. Sparks of the WNBA and LAFC of MLS).
Others: Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins); Nolan Ryan (who formerly owned a stake in the Texas Rangers); Aaron Rodgers (part-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks); Kevin Durant (stake in Philadelphia Union); James Harden (soccer’s Houston Dynamo and Houston Dash); Steve Nash (one of four investors in MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps); and Lauren Holliday, Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett, Serena Williams (all among the part-owners of a new women’s pro soccer team in L.A.).
Here’s a look at each of their ownership stakes:
James: In 2011, James purchased a 2 percent ownership stake in Liverpool FC of the English Premier League, an investment that has paid off handsomely with the team’s league title last month. James, a three-time NBA champion, is looking to add another title with the Lakers as the NBA season nears its re-start.
The Williams sisters: For more than a decade, tennis stars Venus and Serena, who have 30 Grand Slam titles between them, have been part of the Miami Dolphins’ ownership group. They became the first Black females owners in sports when they bought into the NFL team in South Florida. Serena also owns a stake in Los Angeles’ newly minted women’s pro soccer team (see below).
Jordan: In 2010, Jordan became majority owner of Charlotte’s NBA team. They were known as the Bobcats then. Now they’re the Hornets. The six-time NBA champion was the first former player to become an NBA majority owner. He formerly owned a stake in the Washington Wizards.
Beckham: The international soccer star known simply as “Beckham” is part-owner, along with Jorge Mas, Marcelo Claure and Masayoshi Son, of one of Major League Soccer’s newest clubs: Inter Miami, which began play this year. Beckham is also the team’s president.
Jeter: He and New York businessman Bruce Sherman headed up a group that purchased the Marlins organization from Jeffrey Loria for $1.2 billion in 2017. Jeter, best known as the former All-Star shortstop for the New York Yankees, is currently also serving as the Marlins’ CEO.
Gretzky: “The Great One,” a four-time Stanley Cup champion and still the NHL’s leader in career goals and assists, became part owner of the Phoenix Coyotes in 2000. He gave up his ownership share in 2009.
Johnson: Perhaps no former star athlete has been as involved in pro-sports ownership as Johnson, who was part-owner of the team he helped lead to five NBA championships — the Los Angeles Lakers. He sold his share in the Lakers in 2010 but today is part of the ownership group that purchased the Dodgers in 2012, WNBA’s Sparks in 2014 and LAFC of Major League Soccer in 2015.
Lemieux: The former Pittsburgh Penguins star who led the team to a pair of Stanley Cups became the team’s owner in 1999. The Penguins have won three Cups since then, and Lemieux is the only person in NHL history to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup as both a player and owner.
Ryan: Baseball’s career strikeouts king was part of the Texas Rangers’ ownership group from 2010-13 before serving a stint with the Houston Astros in an executive role. That role in Houston ended last year.
Rodgers: The Packers’ star quarterback joined the Milwaukee Bucks’ ownership group as a limited partner in 2018.
Durant: An NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, Durant bought a 5 percent stake in the Philadelphia Union of MLS in June.
Harden: The Houston Rockets star has invested where he plays. Harden joined the investment group of the Houston Dynamo (MLS) and Houston Dash (NWSL) ... and the teams’ venue, BBVA Stadium, in 2019.
Holliday, Wambach, Hamm, Fawcett, Williams, etc.: Former U.S. soccer stars Wambach, Hamm, Holliday and Fawcett, along with Serena Williams, are part of the founding ownership group of that’s being known, for now, as Angels FC: a new franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League. Kansas City used to have a team in this league, and Holliday was a star for two-time NWSL champion FC Kansas City.
These women — a group that includes 14 former NWSL players — and their venture capital partners are pioneers as the first predominantly-female ownership group in the U.S. Magic Johnson, former big-leaguer Nomar Garciaparra and comedian/actor Will Ferrell are among the many others who also have small stakes in the group.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 1:45 PM.