The Best SportsMoney Stories Of 2022

In sports, what happens off the field is often just as interesting as what happens on it. Here are some of our favorite sports business stories from this year, courtesy of Forbes’ SportsMoney team.

Off The Field

Thanks to monster endorsement earnings and smart investments, LeBron James and Tiger Woods have become the first active athletes worth $1 billion.

Serena Williams, one of America’s richest self-made women, with an estimated $260 million fortune, knows what it’s like to feel sore. So she is launching a pain-relief brand, selling cooler-looking, nicer-smelling, slightly more expensive versions of Icy Hot.

Here are a few of our other favorite stories about athletes’ non-athletic endeavors:

The Front Office

Jerry Jones’ success with the Cowboys has unlocked a slew of other promising ventures, including a return to the energy business, which could be his biggest score yet.

Ten women, including the Titans’ Amy Adams Strunk, are majority owners or co-owners of NFL teams, with more on the way.

Here are some of our other favorite stories from the top:

• At the time of his death 12 years ago, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was worth an estimated $1.1 billion; today, each of his three surviving children is a billionaire.
• Catie Griggs is working to make sure the resurgent Mariners are just as successful financially.
• WNBA legend Sue Bird bought into an NWSL team, with the league showing signs of growth even while emerging from a scandal.
• Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has an ambitious plan to take on Big Pharma and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
• Nets owner Joe Tsai wants his team’s revenue to cross $1 billion within seven years—a goal some experts say is as much of a dream as an NBA championship.

Inside Story

Star power, supply-chain savvy and a pandemic golfing boom turned KPS Capital’s $380 million investment in golf-club maker TaylorMade into $1.7 billion.

A rough 2020 brought Donald Trump’s losses at his fledgling European golf courses to more than $100 million, but he was able to refinance a $125 million loan against a Miami golf resort, helping him escape his debt crisis.

Here are some of our other favorite stories that pulled back the curtain on the sports business world:

Cutting Edge

The sports-card industry is having a tech revolution, and Collectors is reaping the benefits, boosting its valuation to $4.3 billion—a five-fold increase—in just a year.

Genius Sports caught Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley betting on his team and then told us how. The data firm’s competitor Sportradar, meanwhile, spoke to us about its efforts to police match-fixing at the World Cup and to reach profitability in the U.S. by 2024.

As the sports betting industry evolves, women are signing up for apps at a faster rate than men.

Lists

Of the 400 richest Americans, 50 own a controlling stake in a sports team, and more than half of those 50 were wealthier than they were a year ago.

Revisit some of our other favorite lists from 2022 below.

The Last Word

“He understood that he was a celebrity athlete and used that to his advantage—and to the advantage of Black people.” – Della Britton

On the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s major league debut, Della Britton, CEO of his namesake foundation, was among those remembering how the baseball legend worked to break color barriers in the world of business, too.

Here are some of our other most quotable stories of 2022:

• St. Peter’s was the Cinderella story of 2022’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but the school’s athletic director and president tamped down hopes that it would become the next Gonzaga.
• The only two women directing Sunday NFL pregame shows shared their perspective about their unique perch.
• The Agada brothers told us how they landed leading roles in Disney’s Giannis Antetokounmpo biopic despite having no acting experience.
• Aubrey Edwards traced her path from video-game maker to pro-wrestling referee.
• A former DJ and wealth manager who started skiing just six years ago at age 32 broke down how he became Jamaica’s first Alpine skiing Olympian.
• After the New York pub Foley’s closed, the proprietor, Shaun Clancy, spoke to us about his efforts to find a new home for the Irish Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Women’s soccer players relayed their reservations about wearing white while on their period as a wave of European teams pledged to remove light-colored shorts from their uniforms.
• Griff Aldrich, chief financial officer of a private-equity firm a few short years ago, described his journey to becoming head coach of an NCAA tournament basketball team.
• Xeve Perez chatted with us about his new endorsement deal as he became perhaps the youngest golfer to partner with a major golf brand, at age 11.

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