Pro Sports Owners Who Have Taken the Biggest Hits in 2020

Plenty has been written about the millionaire professional athletes who were forced to take pay cuts in the wake of shortened seasons triggered by the pandemic. If you thought it was hard to drum up sympathy for them, wait until you hear about the plight of the billionaires who sign their checks.

A handful of team owners across several sports lost nine, and in a few cases even ten-figure sums to the havoc that 2020 wreaked on international athletics. Don’t worry, though. Unlike the millions of Americans who had to tighten their budgets, cancel their Netflix subscriptions and stop going to Starbucks to make rent, the team owners who came up short aren’t exactly pawning their possessions just yet. Every single one of them managed to absorb the hit and retain their membership cards in the three-comma club.

Only 3 of the 4 major North American sports are represented on this list. Oddly enough, the only sport where no owners lost money was baseball, which is peculiar considering how clumsy and inefficient the MLB’s pandemic management was compared to the relative success of the NHL and NBA.

GOBankingRates has ranked the owners based on the smallest percentage net worth lost to the largest --  from March 18 to Nov. 4. Read on to learn which rich owners have become a little less rich.

11. Mark Cuban

• Team: Dallas Mavericks
• League: NBA
• March 18 net worth: $4.3 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $4.2 billion
• Change since March ($): -$100 million
• Change since March (%): -2.33%

10. Janice McNair

• Team: Houston Texans
• League: NFL 
• March 18 net worth: $4 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $3.9 billion
• Change since March ($): -$100 million
• Change since March (%): -2.5%

9. Robert Kraft

• Team: New England Patriots
• League: NFL
• March 18 net worth: $6.9 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $6.6 billion
• Change since March ($): -$300 million
• Change since March (%): -4.35%

8. Tilman Fertitta

• Team: Houston Rockets
• League: NBA
• March 18 net worth: $4.3 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $4.1 billion
• Change since March ($): -$200 million
• Change since March (%): -4.65%

Read More: The Richest NBA Team Owners

7. Stephen M. Ross

• Team: Miami Dolphins
• League: NFL
• March 18 net worth: $7.6 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $7.2 billion
• Change since March ($): -$400 million
• Change since March (%): -5.26%

6. Philip Anschutz

• Team: Los Angeles Kings
• League: NHL
• March 18 net worth: $11 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $10.1 billion
• Change since March ($): -$900 million
• Change since March (%): -8.18%

5. Glen Taylor

• Team: Minnesota Timberwolves
• League: NBA
• March 18 net worth: $2.9 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $2.5 billion
• Change since March ($): -$400 million
• Change since March (%): -$13.79%

3. (tie) Stan Kroenke

• Team: Los Angeles Rams
• League: NFL
• March 18 net worth: $10 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $8.3 billion
• Change since March ($): -$1.7 billion
• Change since March (%): -17%

Read More: How Much Money NFL Teams Are Making With Limited Fan Capacity

3. (tie) Josh Kroenke

• Team: Colorado Avalanche
• League: NHL
• March 18 net worth: $10 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $8.3 billion
• Change since March ($): -$1.7 billion
• Change since March (%): -17%

2. Jeremy Jacobs

• Team: Boston Bruins
• League: NHL
• March 18 net worth: $3.2 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $2.6 billion
• Change since March ($): -$600 million
• Change since March (%): -$18.75%

1. Michael Jordan

• Team: Charlotte Hornets
• League: NBA
• March 18 net worth: $2.1 billion
• Nov. 4 net worth: $1.6 billion
• Change since March ($): -$500 million
• Change since March (%): -23.81%

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Methodology: For this piece, GOBankingRates looked at Forbes’ “The World's Richest Sports Team Owners” data as well as finding the majority owners for all U.S. sports franchises across the major 4 U.S. sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA). Once these owners were found, GOBankingRates used Forbes' 2020 Billionaire data from March 18, 2020, to discover each owner's (1) March 18, 2020, net worth. Then, using Forbes Real-Time Billionaire tracker, GOBankingRates found each owner's (2) Nov. 4, 2020, net worth. With these two factors, GOBankingRates calculated (3) the change in net worth in terms of total dollars and (4) percent change in net worth for each owner. All data was collected on and up to date as of Nov. 4, 2020.

About the Author

Andrew Lisa

Andrew Lisa has been writing professionally since 2001. An award-winning writer, Andrew was formerly one of the youngest nationally distributed columnists for the largest newspaper syndicate in the country, the Gannett News Service. He worked as the business section editor for amNewYork, the most widely distributed newspaper in Manhattan, and worked as a copy editor for TheStreet.com, a financial publication in the heart of Wall Street's investment community in New York City.

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