By Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek
September 23, 2013
Forbes Magazine unveiled its annual list of the 400 richest American’s and not surprisingly, people with investments in sports appear prominently throughout the rankings. The richest American with interests in sports is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who’s worth $41 billion and owns Indian Wells and an America’s Cup racing team. The richest Big Four sports owner is Paul Allen, worth $15.8 billion and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers. All told, 14 NFL owners were among the top 400, along with 12 NBA owners. The only MLB owners to make the list were the Nationals’ Ted Lerner and the Red Sox’s John Henry. Among founders of publicly traded sports companies, Nike Chairman Phil Knight ranked highest, with a personal fortune of $16.3 billion. His rival CEO, Kevin Plank of Under Armour, is worth “just” $1.7 billion.
