5 Ways to Spend the Powerball Jackpot in World Football
Money is power, as the saying goes, and that's as true in world football as it is anywhere else. The best teams tend to pay the best wages, and the rich only tend to get richer with each passing season.
So when we heard that three winners are set to split the massive Powerball lottery jackpot in the United States, according to USA Today, we got to thinking: What if those three decided to spend their cash in world football?
Would they buy the world's best players? How about some choice tickets? Maybe even a club?
For our purposes, we converted the $1.6 billion jackpot to £1.1 billion (or €1.467 billion) based on the latest conversion rates.
For the rest, you'll have to keep reading.
A Half-Dozen Messis
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Barcelona's Lionel Messi recently captured a record fifth Ballon d'Or and is thus the reigning best player in the world. At just 28, Messi still has plenty of time left in his career and is a priceless asset for his club.
Sure, he's one-of-a-kind. But is he really priceless?
According to a study conducted last year by the International Centre for Sports Studies (h/t ESPN FC), Messi is the world's most valuable footballer at €220 million. By our calculations, then, the Powerball winners could buy themselves 6.67 Messis with their cash.
Or, if we use Transfermarkt's estimate of €120 million, they could buy 12.22 of the Argentine maestros.
11 Cristianos
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According to that same CIES study from 2015, Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo is worth €133 million.
That's no small sum, but why the difference? Ronaldo is a hugely marketable star, but he's on the wrong side of 30 and probably doesn't have as much time left at the top of the game as Messi. At least that's the reasoning.
Still, €133 is a hefty price tag, and our Powerball winners could expect to buy just about 11 Cristianos with their winnings.
That total is potentially mouth-watering for anyone who's ever wished they could field a side of 11 Ronaldos. Imagine the possibilities.
11 Million Arsenal Tickets
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Manchester United and Arsenal made headlines recently when they froze season ticket prices in an effort to limit the high costs faced by supporters in following those teams, as reported by BBC Sport.
That was a nice move, but Arsenal's most expensive matchday ticket still stands at £97, the highest in the Premier League. That's more than just pocket change for many fans, but not for our Powerball winners.
At £97 each, £1.1 billion would buy 11,340,206 of those high-priced tickets. That's enough to fill the 60,432-capacity Emirates Stadium more than 187 times.
Stan Kroenke's ears just perked up somewhere in southern California.
One-Fifth Stake in Premier League TV Rights
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Television rights for sporting events are big business around the world, and that's certainly the case for the Premier League. In 2015, Sky and BT paid the league £5.1 billion for three seasons of rights to live TV coverage, according to BBC Sport.
Those are eye-watering numbers, even for three certain people with £1.1 billion lying around. Still, if that £1.1 billion went into TV rights, that would represent roughly 22 percent, or just over one-fifth of the business.
While that might not seem like a good move for some, the residual cashflow would be enormous from advertisements.
A Football Club, Anyone?
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The last few slides were fun to think about, but let's cut to the chase. If you're a football fan and you had a billion dollars, pounds or euros lying about, you'd probably think about buying a club.
And you might just be in luck. That money could buy a pretty decent club, according to data released last month by the London School of Marketing.
In releasing their figures, the LSM noted: "The estimated figures for the clubs' value represent how much a club would cost to buy outright, and takes into account revenue, assets, fan bases and brand partnerships as well as investments and celebrity players."
So, which club would you buy?
Real Madrid top the list at £2.07 billion, meaning our Powerball winners could buy about half of the giant Spanish club. Manchester United, Barcelona and Manchester City also eclipse the £2 billion mark, with Bayern Munich following at £1.5 billion.
This is where the list gets interesting. With £1.1 billion, you'd be able to buy any of Chelsea (£870 million), Arsenal (£832 million), Liverpool (£624 million), Juventus (£531 million) or AC Milan (£492 million) with plenty of money to spare.
Or, for a hipster's special, consider a combination of Borussia Dortmund (£445 million) and Atletico Madrid (£277 million) for a total outlay of £722 million. With all that hipster cred, you'd be the coolest owner in football.
