Joe Burrow, Blake Griffin Team Up to Buy $5 Million Farm in Iowa Patricof Co. has put together an agriculture purchase by a group of professional athletes for $5 million.
By Dan Bova
Old MacDonald had a farm…and it's gonna need a bigger trophy case.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Celtics power forward Blake Griffin, Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman, Islanders winger Anders Lee, and several other professional athletes have teamed up to purchase a farm in Iowa. The farm in question is 104 acres and produces corn and soy. According to Front Office Sports, the purchase was made through a $5 million fund they all contributed to and was set up by Patricof Co., which sources investment opportunities for athletes.
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So will Joe Burrow be out there riding a tractor during the offseason? Not exactly. The group plans to lease the land to farmers and take a single-digit-percentage annual return on the total investment. And they are actively planning to buy four more farms.
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When it comes to investing, these athletes are no rookies. This past December, Burrow announced he was a founding partner in the Pro Volleyball Federation — a professional women's volleyball league set to launch in 2024. And Blake Griffin is an investor in SpaceX, among other companies.
Athletes becoming entrepreneurs is nothing new. More and more, superstar athletes are using their massive contracts to back businesses (and add some more zeros to their seven and eight-digit paychecks.)
Lebron James owns 19 Blaze Pizza franchises and had a large stack in Beats Electronics before the company was bought for $3 billion by Apple. Alex Rodriguez's investment firm oversees hundreds of millions in real estate properties. Serena Williams launched a venture capital firm that invests in minority- and women-owned businesses. And Kevin Durant has invested millions into dozens and dozens of startups, including Postmates, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Acorns.
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