Team Owners Have Poured $100 Million Into The Midterms

The billionaires who own America’s pro sports teams have put at least $100 million into federal races ahead of next Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to a Front Office Sports analysis of Federal Election Commission data published Wednesday, October 28, most of it aimed at helping Republicans keep control of Congress.

A separate review by The Washington Sun landed on the same $100 million floor and found that more than 50 owners across MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL made at least one donation this cycle.

Who Spent The Most

It isn’t close. Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson has put at least $67 million into helping Republicans keep Congress, per FOS, and The Sun counts $68 million, nearly 70% of all the money sports owners gave. The Sun notes her $168 million across the last two election cycles is more than the team salary for five NBA teams this season. No other principal owner spent more than $10 million, FOS found.

Eight more owners spent at least $1 million backing Republicans, according to FOS: Rob Walton (Broncos), Charles B. Johnson (Giants), Dick DeVos (Magic), Tony Ressler (Hawks), Jimmy and Dee Haslam (Bucks, Browns, Crew), Jerry Jones Sr. (Cowboys) and Philip Anschutz (Galaxy, Kings). Walton gave $8.96 million, including $7 million to Americans for Prosperity, Axios Denver reported. Johnson gave more than $2.6 million and was the only MLB majority owner over $1 million, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Democratic side is much smaller. New Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla gave $2 million to the Senate Majority PAC and Falcons owner Arthur Blank gave $300,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, FOS reported. Even families split: Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts spent $320,000 on Democratic causes while her brothers Tom and Todd spent $480,000 on Republican ones, according to The Sun.

The Money Follows The Jersey

Three former sports figures, Jay Feely, Michele Tafoya and Mark Teixeira, are running for Congress as Republicans, and all three have drawn donations from across the sports world, FOS reported. In Arizona, NFL owners from six teams put more than $36,000 toward Feely’s campaign, and both NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Charles Barkley gave him $7,000, the legal maximum, The Sun found. Colin Allred, a Democrat and former Titans linebacker running for a Texas House seat, hasn’t gotten the same treatment from his old employer, the outlet noted.

Same Rules For Everyone

Nobody is breaking a law here. It’s their money, and political giving is legal speech. But it is worth noticing who gets to speak. When players kneel, post, or talk about an election, a loud part of the audience tells them to stick to sports. When the people who sign their checks write seven-figure checks of their own, the room mostly goes quiet.

The money that funds those checks comes from fans of every party, through tickets, jerseys, parking, and TV deals. Those fans don’t get a vote on where it goes after that. And $100 million is a floor, not a ceiling. FEC records don’t cover state races or untraceable “dark money,” FOS pointed out, and owners like the Knicks’ James Dolan have given heavily in state-level contests.

The fix isn’t telling owners to be quiet. It’s holding everyone to one standard. If politics is fair game for the person in the owner’s suite, it’s fair game for the person on the field.

The midterms are Tuesday, November 3.