On July 21, 2009, Marc Anthony signed a deal making him a partial owner of the Miami Dolphins. Though he confessed to being “a little nervous” about having a piece of the venerable franchise, Anthony could not turn down what he called a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." You'll still be seeing his wife J Lo around the block, though—the couple will remain residents of New York, even as they spend more time under the Miami sun. As Marc put it with his typical poetic flair, "I could quite possibly be staring at the first day of the rest of my life".
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In 2004, always-busy rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z placed the winning bid ($300 million) for partial ownership of the New Jersey Nets. Jay-Z is part of a consortium of owners led by developer Bruce Ratner who made the offer, which was accepted in August of ‘04. Ratner hoped to move the team's base from New Jersey to Jay-Z's native Brooklyn. As of yet such plans have not materialized, but that may soon change.
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The Indianapolis native compared Buddy Rice's 2004 Indy 500 win to his surviving quintuple-bypass surgery and the birth of his son. So when Letterman, who was raised just a few miles from Motor Speedway, became a partner in Team Rahal in 1996—and years later part of the team’s name—it must have been quite a thrill. He was there to see the recruiting of star racer Danica Patrick, an icon in the world of sports for having broken car racing’s gender barrier. “She’s a tremendous race car driver,” he said. “What this says about male-female competition, I don’t know.”
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The Philadelphia Soul was formed as an expansion team in 2004 and is owned by rock legend Jon Bon Jovi. He may have given love a bad name, but Bon Jovi gives the Arena Football League, of which the Soul is a member, a pretty good one—the team is the current AFL champions.
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In case you haven’t been following their season closely, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, otherwise known as The Bunnies or The Rabbits, are an Australian professional rugby team, and one of the only two remaining foundational members of the predecessor league to the National Rugby League. Crowe, a longtime fan of the team, became a majority owner along with Australian businessman Peter Holmes á Court in 2006.
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When Nelly joined the ownership group of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004, he got more than just a newly minted basketball team – he, along with fellow owners Michael Jordan and Robert Johnson, form the first fully minority-owned franchise in professional sports history. "Of the many dreams that I have fulfilled in life, being an NBA owner is certainly one of the biggest achievements,” said Nelly. The Bobcats recently made headlines when Johnson, the majority owner, announced he was putting the team back on the market, potentially paving the way for Jordan to take over majority ownership.
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The entertainer famous for his USO shows lived to see his 100th birthday, and thus is probably one of the few people to have seen both World Series (1920 and 1948) that the Cleveland Indians won in the past century. In 1946, despite the team’s less-then-stellar record, Cleveland-born Hope joined a group of investors who purchased the Indians for a reported $1.6 million. Hope also showed a great passion for football, using his television specials to promote the annual College Football All-America team.
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Gloria Estefan is a busy woman. The Cuban-born, seven-time Grammy Award-winner is one of the top 100 bestselling artists of all time, an author of two children’s books, owner of seven separate Cuban-themed restaurants and, as of June 2009, the owner of a “very small” stake in the Miami Dolphins football team, along with her husband. "We really are very, very happy and thrilled to do whatever we can to be a part of this team as we've been to this community throughout the years,” she said. The Estefans are the first Cuban-Americans to hold an ownership stake in the NFL.
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Gene Autry may be the only celebrity to have a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in all five categories, but to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he was more than a showbiz Renaissance man, he was a beloved team owner. Autry, who was perhaps most famous for writing the Christmas carol “Here comes Santa Claus,” served as vice president of Major League Baseball’s American League from 1983 until his death in 1998, as well as owner of the Angels from their creation in 1960. The number 26 was retired in his honor, to reflect a baseball team’s roster of 25 men, with Autry as the essential 26th.
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In 2005, for a cool $375 million, the Cleveland Cavaliers relinquished ownership to a group of investors, one of whom was Usher. The singer became the third pop star to own a large stake in an NBA team in the process. Although how much Usher contributed to that $375 million remains unclear, his love of the game is crystal: he warned reporters at the time that he “gets very emotional watching basketball.”
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