NFL season kickoff: Team owners and their Palm Beach mansions

Football is back, baby. And Palm Beach mansions are front and center to the game.

The National Football League starts its 2023 season Thursday night when the Detroit Lions face reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs. Fans everywhere have been holding their breath awaiting the return of Football Sundays (and Mondays and Thursdays), and all the drama that comes with them.

Like the players and coaches, owners of the league’s 32 teams have had a busy off-season. Magnates and moguls who run the league, most of them billionaires, ousted longtime Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder in July, and forced his sale of the team to an investor group led by Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris. 

Harris was identified as a potential buyer at the annual NFL team owners meeting in Palm Beach in March, according to published reports. While Palm Beach is a picturesque site for a billionaire roundtable, it is also convenient. Many of the team owners have homes on the island among their sprawling real estate portfolios. 

Before his firm’s purchase of the Commanders, an entity linked to Harris flipped an oceanfront estate in Palm Beach for $66 million in December, up 86 percent from its last sale 18 months earlier. 

Other NFL sellers on the island include former Commanders owner Dwight Schar, who sold his South Ocean Boulevard estate for $45 million in January. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-owners Joel and Darcie Kassewitz also sold their waterfront mansion to spec developer Todd Glaser and his partners for $53 million in February of last year. 

Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is among the most notable Palm Beachers in the league. He bought the mansion at 702 North County Road, also known as “the Reef,” for $31.9 million in 2007, according to published reports. The billionaire is also West Palm Beach’s biggest office building owner and is on a path to remake the West Palm Beach skyline. 

Here’s a quick roundup of other NFL owners and their Palm Beach real estate scores:

Robert Kraft | New England Patriots

Robert Kraft, billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, broke a Palm Beach real estate record in December, when he bought a penthouse at 110 Sunset Avenue for $23.8 million. The sale set a price record for condos on the island. He and his wife Dana Kraft’s unit spans 5,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. 

David Tepper | Carolina Panthers

Appaloosa Management founder David Tepper, the league’s wealthiest owner with a net worth of $18.5 billion according to Forbes, bought an oceanfront mansion for $68.4 million in 2021. The 1.1-acre estate at 905 North Ocean Boulevard includes a 12,000-square-foot mansion built in 2020. It has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two half-bathrooms and a pool, records show. 

Jeffrey Lurie | Philadelphia Eagles

Philly owner Jeffrey Lurie dropped $28.5 million on a 13,200-square-foot waterfront mansion in 2013. The nearly 2-acre estate at 1275 South Ocean Boulevard has a six-bedroom, seven-bathroom house built in 2008, as well as a pool and dock, records show. 

Other NFL team owners with Palm Beach ties include the Rooney family, longtime owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Rooneys are a sprawling football dynasty. Last month, scion Sean Rooney won approval to redevelop his longtime island home. He bought the house at 302 Seabreeze Avenue for $1.4 million in 2005.