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ENTERTAINMENT | May 15

What’s Up With Celebrities Buying Sports Teams?

What’s Up With Celebrities Buying Sports Teams?
Rob McElhenney (L) and US actor and Wrexham owner Ryan Reynolds (R) celebrate on the pitch with the National League trophy - Oli SCARFF / AFP

Is This Merely A New Trend Or Is It Truly A Business Move?

JJ Watt is returning to football and he won’t even have to strap on the pads. You see, he is buying a fútbol team across the pond and joining plenty of other celebrities and former athletes who are no longer content to watch sporting events, they want to own the teams that play them. Let’s take a look at some more celebrity sport franchise owners below.

 

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Getting Into the Game

Have you ever had more money than you knew what to do with and couldn’t figure out a new and exciting way to spend your money? Well, me neither but obviously there are celebrities from every walk of life that have this problem and have found an expensive way to solve it.

It’s no longer enough for those pretty faces to have courtside seats or a private luxury box for the team of their choice. Oh, no, that’s just so passé. It’s so much more fun when you’re the one hosting a party for 20 or 30 thousand guests with your very own collection of world-class athletes serving as the entertainment.

Let’s present a few Hollywood powerhouses who have decided to buy a sports franchise to spice up their idyllic lives. Without further ado, it’s time to get jealous.

Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney: Wrexham AFC

Ryan Reynolds has been in a sh*t ton of TV and film but if the name doesn’t ring an immediate bell – he’s Deadpool. Oh, and he was also People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010 and one of the only men on the planet with the juice to kick Scarlett Johansson to the curb only to hook up with another super fox in Blake Lively.

 

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A post shared by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds)

Anyway, Ryan Reynolds and a guy named Rob McElhenney, who nobody knows except fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, not only bought a soccer team but even made a documentary about it. Welcome to Wrexham chronicles life as an owner of a fifth-tier soccer club located in Wales. But whatever “voodoo Ryan do” must work because within three years Wrexham went from an obscure Welsh team to globally adored champions, winning their first title in 45 years.

LeBron James: Boston Red Sox

Okay, the title is a bit misleading because LeBron and his partner Maverick Carter – only LeBron would hang with a guy named Maverick – converted their Liverpool shares for a one percent share of Fenway Sports Group.

Now Fenway Sports Group happens to own the RedSox, therefore, the man loathed throughout Boston and many other sports hotbeds, technically owns one of pro sports’ most iconic brands. And while you can make the argument that LeBron is an athlete first and a celebrity second, it’s still hysterical that Sox fans have to live with the fact that LeBron is kind of their daddy.

Usher: Cleveland Cavaliers

We haven’t heard from Usher in a while and if he’s fallen so far off of your radar, allow me to assist. Travel back to circa 2004 and if you were anywhere near a radio you heard his ubiquitous smash hit, Yeah!.

Usher is a talented song and dance man but he also likes his hoops. And right around the time he got all of that cash from Yeah!, he decided to spend a cool $9 million on a minority share of the Cavs. But even though LeBron was on the team during that time, it wouldn’t be until the King returned to Cleveland that he finally brought home an NBA title in 2016.

Natalie Portman: Angel City FC

Natalie Portman is hot, Harvard-educated, and an A-List actress. So naturally she needs to own a professional sports team. But here’s the thing. I had no idea what the hell Angel City FC was until I did my obligatory research. Sure, the FC tipped me off, so I knew what sport but had never heard of them.

Well, they are the newest entry into the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) which was also a new one for me. And although she bought into the franchise, we should also note that dozens of others wrote a check as well, namely Serena Williams, Jennifer Garner, and Eva Longoria.

There are so many celebrities (and pseudo-celebrities) who hopped on this bandwagon that it probably cost them less than the cost of a spa day at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Nevertheless, Ms. Portman is one of many proud owners of Angel City FC, and if you ever wondered whether or not the pull of a celebrity backer influences a team’s popularity then look no further because Angel City had the league’s highest attendance average (19,105) in 2022, its inaugural season.

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