SPEND IT LIKE BECKHAM

For the ultrawealthy, boats or jets are yesterday's toys. DEREK C. BLASBERG digs into how owning a sports team became the last bastion of status for a well-moneyed few

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On a recent Saturday in Los Angeles, a flag football game unfolds at Exposition Park's BMO Stadium that looks more like a glossy awards show than a light-touch sporting exhibition.

Tom Brady has temporarily unretired (again) and is back on the field. Travis Scott is DJ'ing in the stands for a crowd that includes Kendall Jenner, Hailey and Justin Bieber, and Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Kevin Hart is on the mic. There are trophies and confetti cannons, and the whole thing is broadcast live on Fox, Fox Sports, and Tubi to millions of viewers.

In the middle of it all—including group shots that pop up all over Instagram in the hours and days that follow—moving easily between the suites, the sidelines, and the cameras, is Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and one of the most powerful figures in American sports.

It's hard not to notice Kraft. Not because he stands out—it's not like he's wearing a giant fur coat à la Joe Namath, the swaggering 1969 Super Bowl-winning New York Jets quarterback who turned himself into one of the first true sports celebrities.

Quite the opposite: Kraft, in a half-zip polo and mirrored sunglasses, looking like a sportier, clean-shaven Santa Claus, fits perfectly into the room of power players.

This is how to flex now. Kraft has become the unlikely muse for the wealthy and status-conscious, because owning a pro team-or owning a part of one, which recent rules in the National Football League, as well as Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, have allowed-has become the ultimate trophy asset for the rich and powerful.

Think about it. An invite to a fashion show? That’s sweet. A free ride on a private plane? It seems everyone has a NetJets account now. (Private jet flights hit a record high of 3.9 million globally in 2025, roughly a 34 percent increase from 2019.) But a walk-on pass to the 50-yard line at a Patriots game? Now we're talking.