Ronaldo Hits Billionaire Status, Former NFL Pro Bowler Greg Olsen Talks Football

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0:30is a bulletproof business. Racing's unique because there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with the guys. Come on, it's pro pickleball real. Are people really going to tune into this? If you're playing moneyball with a huge bag of money, you're going to be really, really good. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barnes. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damien will be back next week. Coming up on the show, we'll talk with former NFL Pro Bowl tight end Greg Olson. I said Greg Olson.

1:05Newton steps up, goes for the end zone. Olson, touchdown! We'll talk to him about the NFL season so far and about his Youth Incorporated project. We'll also talk about an MLB slugger that has his sights set on a new high-tech golf course outside of New York City. All that and more is on the way on the Bloomberg Business of Sports, But first, a new athlete has reached billionaire status this week. That's right, Michael. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has become the very first billionaire active soccer player, with a net worth climbing to$1.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ooh, that's Damien Sassauer money.

1:48Bloomberg's Dylan Sloan has some reporting on this. He's here now to break down how Ronaldo reached billionaire status. Dylan, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. Give me some tips because I want to get paid too. How did he become this rich? You really said it, I have to say. Saudi Arabia is a really big part of that. So we've been looking at the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a number of professional athletes for a while, especially in the soccer world. And one of the things that stood out to us about Ronaldo and his wealth is that he's been one of the best players in the world, one of the best paid players in the world for decades now at this point.

2:33But it really is this transfer to Saudi Arabia in the past four years that's really leveled up his wealth in a different way. So, you know, he played for years in England, in Spain, he had a stint in Italy as well. But the amount of money that he's been paid at Al Nasser, his club based in Riyadh, has really been what's brought him over the line and led to this$1.4 billion fortune that we've calculated for him. I think the interesting thing there is that you brought up all the different places he's played and how those things have gone into his net worth. But it's really the first time that we've seen an athlete reach his billionaire status because of their play on the field, right?

3:08Can you elaborate on that uniqueness? Yeah, absolutely. So a number of the other athletes that we looked at recently, we looked at Federer a few months ago. We've done valuations on other athletes like Michael Jordan and LeBron James. A lot of those come from off the field, from endorsements, from investments, something like that. for example, Roger Federer, who we looked at a few months ago, the biggest chunk of his net worth is actually from this investment in On Holdings, the Swiss running shoe company that he made. But for Ronaldo, it really is his earnings. It really is what he's made from playing on the field.

3:39And while he does have a number of outside investments that we dug into, none of those have really been significant drivers of his net worth. And that's a testament to him, I think, that it really is his star power, his talent on the field, and what teams have been willing to pay up for him that's led to this fortune. Now, let's bring it into focus because part of this $1.4 billion, because he also has a contract with Armani, Armani, and also Nike. Now, I don't have any contracts except with PF Flyers, and we can see how that went. Can this lead to more endorsements for Ronaldo, and can we see that fortune grow even more?

4:18Right, and one of the things that we've seen with a lot of other athletes in this space is that even after they retire, these endorsement deals have become a significant source of income for years or even decades afterwards. So that Nike deal for Ronaldo is still ongoing. He's been earning tens of millions of dollars a year as a major brand representative for them. And we do expect to see Ronaldo's fortune continue to grow over the next years and decades. Actually, he recently signed an extension at the Saudi club Al Nasser this past summer. We haven't included any of those earnings in our valuation of his net worth.

4:51That's not money in the door yet, but that'll be, you know, it's looking like likely hundreds of millions of dollars at least, and that's just in contract earnings. And then, of course, like you're saying, you know, potential future endorsement deals that he hasn't even signed yet. So for him, it's really been, you know, here now in the twilight of his career. He's in his 40s. You know, we're not sure how much longer he's going to continue to play, but certainly there could be a lot more money coming in the door for him. I think the interesting thing to look at, and Michael, you put it out there, is like the getting to this level network and the Saudi contracts and all that thing.

5:21But it also came with a lot of criticism, right, when it first happened. And then at that time, you also had Messi go to MLS. And there was this comparison of he's obviously going to get more money in his contract, but will Messi get more in terms of endorsements for being in the U.S. market? So how would you compare the two as in what's more important, what's more significant? Was it Messi, what he's done for the MLS being in the U.S. market, or Ronaldo in Saudi? Yeah, that's a really interesting comparison and something that we looked at closely for this story. I mean, you know, throughout both of their careers, which have progressed, you know, on very similar timelines, they've been two of the best players in the world, two of the best paid players in the world.

5:59But yeah, it really has been a marked difference over the past few years, like you're saying, with Ronaldo going to Saudi Arabia, Messi coming to the US. But in some ways, those two deals are actually closer than you might think. And both of them are structured in sort of new ways that we haven't seen with major soccer contracts in the past. The big thing there is both of those two athletes are reportedly getting an equity stake in part of the team that they're playing for as part of the deal. Messi is expected to have an option to purchase part of Inter Miami, become a co-owner of the club there.

6:29And then Ronaldo's new contract, this extension over the summer also reportedly includes an equity stake in Al Nasser in the team. So that's something that players just haven't really been able to command in the past. This is sort of a new perk, a new addition to this type of deal and given the direction that we've been you know seeing sports franchises not just in the soccer world but you know across all leagues and all sports going over the past few years that could end up being something very lucrative for the both of them down the line it's something that we've tried they've tried to do in the nfl right some nfl players have tried to say hey put that in my contract and they're a little bit i mean they said no it was like a quick no from the nfl but do you think that the star capital that messi and ronaldo have for the sport of soccer is what allows them to do that?

7:14Yeah, I mean, I think I can't speak too much to sort of what's going on inside the MLS, but I know that when that deal was announced, that was a huge draw for them and a huge draw for the league. And I know that Bloomberg recently put out a story sort of talking about that, about the star power of Messi and not just for Inter-Miami specifically, but also for Apple, who's the MLS's exclusive streaming partner and for that whole ecosystem of business around there. That's been a really big draw. I should also mention that as part of Messi's deal as well, not only was it an equity stake in Inter-Miami, But also there's a revenue sharing agreement with Apple as part of that deal.

7:45So the terms of that aren't disclosed. And it's hard to tell exactly what his cut of that is. But he's reportedly receiving income as part of the Apple MLS streaming deal. So, again, just another example of sort of the new innovative perks and mechanics that, you know, he and other star athletes are able to command in some of these deals. I want to talk about Al Nasir, the team that he went to, Riyadh Base. Before he went there, you didn't know anything about this team. Who? What? What are they doing? Now, they're all over the map around the world. Right. And, you know, he was sort of one of the first players to really make that move, to add some serious star power to the league.

8:26And since then, they've seen a number of other major European players making the move over there. Karim Benzema, who's a teammate of Ronaldo's at Real Madrid, moved there a few years ago. Another Portuguese player, João Felix, joined as well. So you've got a number of other athletes sort of making the trip now. He was sort of one of the first people to break ground. But certainly, and, you know, they've done a good job of not just playing their games in Saudi Arabia, but also playing internationally. I think that, you know, they played some some matches in Hong Kong that have been really well received.

8:55And, you know, they're definitely growing, utilizing Ronaldo's star power for sure, but becoming much more of a global brand. And what we saw actually this year with the Club World Cup was Al-Hilal, they advanced to a stage that no one really thought they were going to. They beat Manchester City and advancing to the quarterfinals. So it seems that it would seem that the bet they're making on soccer is paying off. Do you think we'll now see more players going there or be taken more seriously as a league? Yeah, I mean, in terms of players, I have to say just the financial power that they're able to wield.

9:24And these deals that they're able to offer players is certainly proving to be a big draw. Ronaldo, obviously, a clear example of that. I mean, you know, if you're able to play athletes hundreds of millions of dollars, and not even for long-term deals, but, you know, for Ronaldo, we're talking about two-year deals. These are players who are towards the end of their careers, not necessarily young players in their prime. So, you know, if you have a league and if you have owners who are willing to pay up and attract those types of players, it can definitely be a real, you know, opportunity for growth.

9:53I have to bring this up. I know I'm going off the board here a little bit. but LeBron James, he fooled me. I have to admit, it was, as everybody knows, 2010 he had what was called the decision, which was a big televised event that he was going to Miami. And then several days ago he said, okay, I've got a big decision here. I'm like, oh, is this going to be the end of his career? And then he's selling cognac. what's your decision in this fall man this is tough in this fall i'm gonna be taking my talents to hennessy vsop your thought did did he fool you like he fooled me not i not i you know i i'll say i when i saw it i was like this is this is gonna be some sort of gimmick i didn't think it was going to fake out people that hard but i i you know i'm very skeptical of people these days michael and i just think uh there's no way uh lebron is announcing his retirement the way people want him to do i think dylan your thoughts man i saw social media was a buzz actually yesterday i was revisiting our valuation of lebron james's net worth we published that last summer um just over a billion dollars for him just in case for that contingency but yeah you know definitely uh I don't know if I'd call it a letdown necessarily, but not quite what people expected when that one came out.

11:28I guess you won't see Cristiano Ronaldo for Boone's Farm Wine. You won't see that coming up anytime soon. Dylan, you are the man, and I appreciate you coming down here and talking with us on Bloomberg Businesses Sports. A great article, folks, by the way. Go to the terminal and check it out. You will really appreciate it. Thank you again, Dylan. We appreciate it. Thanks to both of you. Great to chat. Up next, we turn to a superstar slugger with big plans for a high-tech golf court. Here's the next pitch. This is lifted high, and this ball is blasted down the left side, and that lands in the second deck.

12:06It is Troutaheer, a home run. Number 37 of the year. Boy, that ball got out in no time, and Trout will circle the bases. For Vanessa Bernomo, I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

12:38Get the news you need at the click of a button inside your car. The new Bloomberg Business App, now featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. All your favorite Bloomberg Radio shows at your fingertips. Download it free in the Apple App Store or on Google Play. This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damian will be back next week. Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout is planning a huge high-end golf course just about two hours south of New York City.

13:15That's in New Jersey, his home state. And from the looks of it, it plans the rivals some of the most exclusive and high-tech courses in the country. Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Michael Crowley has reporting on this. He joins us now to discuss. Michael, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Thanks for having me. All of a sudden, Mike Trout is, see this is why I wish I was playing golf. where he is debuting high-end golf club, a high-end golf club in New Jersey. Tell us about that. And this is, he can make a lot of money out of this. I think, yeah, I think the market, I think if you do it right, there is a market to make some money off of this.

14:00But I think the reason he's doing it is, I think he was looking at things post-baseball career, not to say he's near the end of his career, wouldn't be for me to say anyways. But I think that he said that they were presented with some opportunities to buy a course. There was a businessman in New Jersey that he knew that had done some work on his home, or his company had done some work on Mike's home, and brought him an opportunity to actually build a golf course in an old silica sand quarry. So he jumped at the chance to do it. He got into golf during COVID like a lot of Americans and took to the game.

14:38He played it growing up, but he really fell into it during COVID. And it seemed like a good opportunity, he said, for him and his team to go ahead and take a shot at building this course in Jersey. It's interesting. I mean, like you said, instead of buying one that already existed, building one from scratch and having Tiger Woods design the course, what kind of value do you think that adds to a project like this? well i think it's fair to say if you have a high profile athlete like mike trout that's going to draw a lot of attention and then you're going to get a lot of high net worth individuals who want to be in that orbit i don't think that's telling any tales out of school but you're also going to get a lot of professional athletes that that are also very high profile and successful and they kind of understand that when they go there maybe they won't be sort of monkeys in a zoo right They'll actually be able to sort of be themselves, be relaxed, kind of chill out and sort of understand that they don't have to be on, that they're not the most famous person in the club maybe that day.

15:41I think that that has a lot to do with, you know, why you would build a club. Then you can sort of create the culture of that club. And I think that that sort of adds some value. And I think with Tiger coming on board, his design firm has only done about a dozen projects, even though they've been around since 2006. Now, some of that, I don't know all the particulars of that. I'm going to guess some of that's because he's still busy playing a lot of golf, but I would also guess it's because he's particular about what kinds of projects he wants to do. And it makes sense that one high-profile athlete would pick another high-profile athlete who's in that business to design his course and help him create the kind of atmosphere as well as field of play that he wants.

16:22Now, this is in Millville, New Jersey, when it will open in April of 2026, at least. That's what they're predicting. And Trout will open it up, which, by the way, Millville is about two hours south of New York City. Now, what's happening next year in New York City that following month? We're talking cup championships, man, and, you know, soccer. And it's going to be huge. I'm wondering if they're going to benefit from all of the soccer fans coming in town. No, probably not, because it's going to be a private exclusive club. They're going to cap it at 227 members. So there's not going to be any sort of public play.

17:04You know, we've done some stories like this at Pursuits for Bloomberg about sort of the high-end private golf market. And it's really booming right now. We did a story about South Florida last year. About eight courses are going in just north of West Palm Beach. Those are all super high net worth individuals who are doing that. But these kinds of destination courses that they're called, they're coming online everywhere. There's a big one coming on in Texas that should be opening up later this year. And I mean, when I say Texas, I mean the middle of nowhere. Like you fly to Amarillo, then you drive two hours east to get to this course.

17:41So these are high net worth individuals that want to create sort of exclusive opportunities. You go in, you play 18 the first day you arrive, maybe 36 the next day, and then you play 18 before you leave. And so most of these guys, as we said in the article, they're flying in private typically. There's going to be a helipad at Trout's Course, for instance, to get you, you know, I think if you drove, it's 30 minutes from the private airstrip, but you can be there in six minutes via chopper if you like. And they're all creating different ways of experiencing the property. I think one of the most interesting and unique things about Trout's property that I had not heard before was this idea that if, Michael, you pulled your car in there, you wouldn't see your car again until you leave.

18:26They would whisk it away to some underground garage they've got on property. And when you come back to the car, it's been completely detailed inside and out. Whoa. I should go there for that. Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking I'm just going to pull up like I'm lost. Yeah. Show up an hour later. You guys got my car? The members in New Jersey just go there just to get their car washed. That's right. So I think that what we're seeing, though, in this, in the private golf market, you're just seeing a lot of that, a lot of this. And part of this is a golf boom. And part of what happened was that people couldn't get into local country clubs where they lived.

19:07Like they literally, the rosters got full very fast. and then if you had certain means it just became more interesting and perhaps even easier if as weird as that may sound to just go somewhere else all right go play for three days and then come back home just just fly away to new jersey really quick for a little bit or the middle of texas yeah um it's interesting you know about the exclusivity part of it and tell me about this because i'm not necessarily an expert on, does that mean then that they can't or they won't host a PGA or a live golf tournament in the future? You know, I didn't ask them about that.

19:45I'm not sure that the course is designed as such to be what we would call a championship course. It seems like it's a course that's designed more for fun and entertainment, which means in a way, I guess you could say that means easier, but I don't think that's anything that's part of their aspirations. You certainly do have clubs that are in that sort of private high-end market that do have aspirations for that. But that becomes kind of a whole other ball of wax sometimes where everything around the club is kind of geared for the seven days that the tournament will be there. And so you could be a member of a club like that, but it really doesn't feel like you're a club because everything's kind of geared towards those seven days you host a tournament.

20:27My impression from what I got from the team was I don't foresee them doing that. One, I don't think the course is built to sort of host tournaments. Two, I think it's more about what he wants to do is take some of the stuffiness out of golf, which has been happening for a little while now. But instead of just going out with four players, maybe we go out six or seven or eight. As long as we kind of keep pace and don't slow anybody down, we can do it that way. If we want to play barefoot, we can play barefoot. But, you know, I mean, there's a lot of things that he wants it. He wants it to be a serious golf club, but he doesn't want it to be a stuffy golf club.

21:00And that's a hard needle to thread that a lot of these places are trying to sort of figure out in this kind of new version of golf that's happening right now. This new course in Vineland, New Jersey, it's right by Millville, which, by the way, is Trout's hometown. And I wonder if the people that designed the course were thinking about the Augusta National Golf Club. Yeah, I think that's it. I mean, Tiger's design sort of ethos really comes from the success he's had at Augusta and sort of how that course sets up. Augusta is an interesting case in the golf world in that it challenges the best players in the world, obviously, every April.

21:41but for a regular player playing the appropriate tees you can still have a lot of fun and get around that course it doesn't beat you up and part of the way it does that is it doesn't have high rough right so if you miss the fairway and you're off in the rough the rough is not going to be so hard that you can't advance the ball or you can't get around it the really difficult thing about Augusta are its greens that's its sort of number one defense there's a lot of contour humps and bumps in the greens as we say and that's the way Tiger sets up a lot of his courses they They have low rough, wide fairways, so lots of opportunity to hit the short grass.

22:16And then when you get around the greens, you have to start making some decisions. And he usually builds typically big greens, so they're receptive to errant shots as well. So you've always got kind of a pup. But if there's a fall off on the green or there's a contour in the green, that could be difficult. But he tries to make his courses pretty receptive. Mm-hmm. And this is now Mike Trout's, not his first venture in the world of golf. He's also a limited partner with the TGL, which is Tiger Woods' league, the Tomorrow Golf League. So do you think that we can expect a lot of what Mike Trout does off the diamond in his post-retirement to really be honed around golf?

22:59Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised by it. I mean, golf, as we know, is a great networking sport, right? And there's a lot of different people from different types of businesses that play golf and want to be involved in golf. And I think we're seeing a lot of that right now. I mean, you look at some of the success of like a show like Stick on Apple, as well as like the crazy numbers, Happy Gilmore 2 got on Netflix. And I think what those two shows speak to, they speak to sort of a popularity that is that I would still say golf is niche, but I would say that niche has gotten larger, right? And I think Trout's both involvement in TGL as well as his course speak to this idea of sort of a more kind of mainstream attitude towards golf as well as it being a great place and an avenue to find investors or investments that you're interested in and a way to sort of conduct business and meet people that are interested in things that you are.

23:54We forgot to mention the most neat. Kids still say that? I guess so. But anyway, they can play in the night. I mean, there's a course that's there on this, and it's called the bullpen. Tell us about that. Yeah, that's a new thing that's been happening. Probably I'd say that, friend, is about 10 years now where you have an 18-hole, what we consider a traditional golf course on property, and then you have a short course, what we used to call pitching putts, what maybe your mom or your dad would stop in and do nine holes before they came home from work, you know, just par three courses. But these have been really becoming popular over the last 10 years at sort of really high-end public resorts like Bandon Dunes and Streamsong in Florida.

24:39And then you're starting to see when people build these clubs, they always want an extra sort of 9, 10, 11, 12 holes because some people just don't have the appetite to go out and play another 18 or walk another 18. Typically, these courses are always walking only too. So what they did at Trout National was they decided, like, Let's build another one of these short courses, but let's put some lights under it so that we can kind of keep playing and having fun even after the sun goes down. And that's a trend that we're starting to see at some of these places, too. A lot of resorts. There's even a business model out in Arizona, a place that is sort of it lights up at night.

25:14That's kind of its sort of selling point. But, yeah, it's going to be a pretty interesting sort of experience, I think, if you're there on property. And everything's looser, right? So there'll be drinks, there'll be fire pits, there'll be things like that. And it'll be a nice time and a nice experience to play under the lights. Our thanks to Bloomberg Business Week contributor Michael Crowley for joining us. Up next, we turn to former NFL Pro Bowler and current Fox Sports NFL analyst Greg Olson. For Vanessa Perdomo, I'm Michael Barr. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports, Bloomberg Radio around the world.

25:52this is bloomberg business of sports from bloomberg radio thanks for joining us on the bloomberg business of sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports i'm michael barr and i'm vanessa perdomo the nfl season is in full swing and has already seen some surprises it's first and goal with 30 seconds left now lawrence goes down has to get up breaks a tackle touchdown Jackson Bay