I AM SHOCKED

Sports billionaires got $98.5 billion richer during the pandemic

© REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes

celebrates with the Vince Lombardi trophy after winning the Super Bowl LIV. 

During the pandemic, billionaires who own sports franchises added $98.5 billion to their net worths.

That includes the owners of the two teams headed to the Super Bowl.

Some players opted out of the last NFL season over coronavirus concerns.

Over the past 10 months, 64 billionaires who own 68 professional sports teams have seen their collective net worths grow by $98.5 billion, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF).

Using data from Forbes and Wealth-X, the report found that from March 18, 2020, to January 29, 2021, sports billionaires had seen their wealth increase from a combined $325 billion to $426 billion.

Several of those billionaires will see their teams compete at this year's Super Bowl. The owners of the Kansas City Chiefs are the Hunt family. Specifically, Ray Lee Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt, who have a collective net worth of around $6.3 billion, have seen a $482 million boost to their net worth during the pandemic, the report said. And the Glazer family, who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are worth around $1.7 billion.

These increases probably had little to do with football, as The Wall Street Journal reported last July that the pandemic would likely blow a hole as large as $4 billion in NFL revenue for the season.

For the past few decades, $9 billion in taxpayer subsidies have been given to 28 sports teams owned by 26 billionaires, the report said. The report's authors argue that the gains by sports billionaires underscore the need for a wealth tax.

"The Super Bowl brings the whole nation together, but we have not come together as a country to beat the pandemic," Frank Clemente, executive director for Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement. "Billionaire sports owners have continued their long winning streak of ever-growing fortunes while fans at home are losing their lives and livelihoods. Real teamwork would require billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes so we can get the whole US back to its winning ways."

The Chiefs did not respond to Insider's request for comment, and the Buccaneers did not immediately respond.

Billionaires have seen huge gains during the pandemic

Globally, billionaires made $3.9 trillion between March 18 and December 30, 2020. In fact, the gains by the top 10 richest billionaires could pay for the entire world to get vaccinated - and to keep everyone out of poverty.

Meanwhile, workers lost $3.7 trillion in earnings throughout the pandemic. American workers saw the largest loss with a 10.3% decline; overall, women and younger workers were disproportionately impacted by employment losses.

Even some of the usual faces didn't appear on the NFL roster this year: many of its workers. ESPN's Elizabeth Merrill reported that 69 players voluntarily sat out the season. Players who opted out received stipends, with those who were at high risk receiving more. From August 1 through January, 262 NFL players - and 462 "other personnel" - tested positive for COVID-19.

So far, American billionaires have added $1.1 trillion to their collective net worths during the pandemic. Over 10 million Americans remain unemployed, and nearly 8 million have fallen into poverty in the past few months.