Steve Ballmer Retains Title as Richest U.S. Sports Owner

Steve Ballmer is ready to welcome both the Olympics and the World Cup to his adopted city soon, but in the meantime he’s making the most of owning the Los Angeles Clippers.

Forbes has once again ranked Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, as America’s richest sports owner for the eighth consecutive year. His net worth is an estimated $83 billion.

• Newcomer Rob Walton ($56.7 billion) took second after his purchase of the Denver Broncos.
• Four different sports round out the top five: David Tepper ($18.5 billion) owns the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, Robert Pera ($17.6 billion) owns the Memphis Grizzlies, and Steve Cohen ($17.5 billion) owns the New York Mets. 
• Cleveland Cavaliers owner and Quicken Loans founder Daniel Gilbert ($17.3 billion) landed at No. 6 despite losing 44% of his wealth.
• Jerry Jones made the biggest one-year jump, 75.8%, to $16 billion. His $8 billion Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable NFL team.

Ballmer told Front Office Sports that even with the explosive growth in value across sports, he intends to remain focused on basketball.

Over the past four years, he successfully led an effort to renovate all 350 public basketball courts in L.A. after a $10 million donation to the city’s parks foundation.

Jump Ballmer

“I had a love for L.A. before I spent time here, and since I’ve been involved with the Clippers, I just like it more and more every year,” Ballmer told FOS. “If you’re going to be participants in the city like we are, we’re going to go all in.”

The Clippers are moving from Crypto.com Arena to the $2 billion Intuit Dome, opening in 2024.

The venue could be a host site for the Olympic Games in 2028. The Forum, which Ballmer bought for $400 million in 2020, is reportedly set to host gymnastics.