Journalism of Courage
America’s Top 10 Richest Sports Team Owners 2026: LA Clippers’ Steve Ballmer tops list for 12th time
America’s Richest Sports Team Owners 2026 Ranking: Meet the billionaire team owners topping Forbes’ 2026 list of the richest figures in American sports.
Steve Ballmer sustained his No. 1 position on the list for the twelfth consecutive time in the top 20 America's sports owners in 2026. (photo credit: wikimedia commons)
America’s richest sports team owners 2026: Forbes has released its list of America’s top 20 richest sports owners for this year, and it is more complicated than you think. It also noted that the top 20 owners are worth a combined $666 billion. However, the richest of them has been benched this National Basketball Association season.
For its 2026 ranking of the top 20 richest sports owners, Forbes evaluated control owners across seven North American sports leagues. The business magazine also noted that the net worths of three list members—Rob Walton, Miriam Adelson, and Jerry Jones—include assets held by their family members.
Steve Ballmer sustained his No. 1 position on the list for the twelfth consecutive time, but he has been banned from the league for a year due to a salary cap circumvention scandal involving star player Kawhi Leonard. The LA Clippers face a $30 million fine and the loss of five future first-round draft picks from the NBA. His wealth, however, remains steady as his net worth of $156 billion increased by 2 per cent this year.
The Clippers, at $7.5 billion, are worth nearly four times the $2 billion Ballmer spent to buy the team 12 years ago. Rob Walton, owner of the Denver Broncos, handed over day-to-day control of the Broncos after the National Football League owners unanimously approved the purchase of the franchise by the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group. He was ranked No. 2 on the list with a net worth of $132 billion.
Henry Samueli, owner of the Anaheim Ducks, came third on the list with a net worth of $33.8 billion. The fourth position went to the only woman on the top 10 list, Miriam Adelson, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who has a net worth of $33.5 billion. Robert Pera, owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, ranked No. 5 with a net worth of $29.6 billion. David Tepper, Stan Kroenke, and Steve Cohen were ranked No. 7, 8, and 9, respectively. Jerry Jones ranked No. 9, while Dan Gilbert closed out the top 10 list.
| Rank | Owner | Team | Net-Worth (USD) |
| 1 | Steve Ballmer | LA Clippers | 156 billion |
| 2 | Rob Walton | Denver Broncos | 132 billion |
| 3 | Henry Samueli | Anaheim Ducks | 33.8 billion |
| 4 | Miriam Adelson | Dallas Mavericks | 33.5 billion |
| 5 | Robert Pera | Memphis Grizzlies | 29.6 billion |
| 6 | David Tepper | Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC | 28.5 billion |
| 7 | Stan Kroenke | Denver Nuggets and more | 27.6 billion |
| 8 | Steve Cohen | New York Mets | 26.7 billion |
| 9 | Jerry Jones | Dallas Cowboys | 23.5 billion |
| 10 | Dan Gilbert | Cleveland Cavaliers | 22.9 billion |
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