A sports fan's guide to spending $50m Lotto jackpot

By Will Toogood

The Lotto Powerball jackpot has rolled over to a massive $50 million in a must-be-won draw on Saturday, equalling the country’s highest ever jackpot.

Wednesday night’s $43m prize was not stuck. It was the fourth biggest prize in Lotto’s history after two $50m jackpots in 2020 and $44m in 2016. And the sum was also the largest prize offered this year.

But how would a sports fanatic spend all of those millions?

Sports tickets

$8m - Las Vegas Grand Prix tickets

You’re not really a fan of motorsport until you’ve paid $8m for a ticket to a Formula One race. Technically, it’s $8m for 12 tickets to a Formula One race, the Formula One Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix to be exact, but that still comes out to a much more palatable $666,000 a head.

As well as the tickets in the exclusive Paddock Club to view the race, you have five nights at the 10,300 square foot Nobu Sky Villa - which features a 4700 square foot balcony capable of hosting up to 75 people. This begs the question: how long do you think it would take you to fill the capacity of the balcony if you stood on the Strip asking passers-by if they’d like the best view of the race money can buy?

$8,675 - VIP package to watch a Manchester City game

Now that you’re a multi-millionaire watching a football game in anything other than five-star surroundings probably won’t hit the spot any more.

Enter Etihad Stadium and their £4200 ($8675)-per-person ‘Autograph’ package. Parting with nearly $10,000 to watch a game of football might seem obscene - and it is - but that money gets you a meet and greet with Man City club legend, pitchside access for the warmups and a fulltime meet and greet with the current players after the match.

$17,883 - Super Bowl premium tickets

The most famous extravagant sporting ticket would surely be top of the list to purchase once the Lotto check clears. For a premium package that includes a seat and access to VIP pre and post match events featuring appearances from NFL legends, you’d have to part ways with the best part of $20,000.

For context, this year’s Super Bowl tickets had nothing selling below $3900 per seat so what’s an extra $15,000 if you have $50m in the kitty?

Two tickets to every All Blacks, Black Ferns and Māori All Blacks match, for the rest of your life

Stick with us because we’re about to reach Warriors top eight hopes level of mathematics here.

Packages listed on the New Zealand Rugby website for every away and home All Blacks, Black Ferns and Māori All Blacks match come to a total of $134,000 for two people for 2024.

Multiply that by say, 40 years, and you’ll have racked up $5.36m worth of rugby matches for you and a lucky plus one.

Investments
Of course once you become a millionaire there’s only one thing on your mind: how to make more of those lovely millions.

Imperatriz

A surefire way to create generational wealth for you and your descendants would be to invest in a racehorse, but not just any race horse. Champion New Zealand race mare Imperatriz retired earlier this year and was sold at auction as a potential broodmare for A$6.6million ($7.14m).

Yes, that is a sizeable chunk of cash from your $50m but with over $14 million in profit from her original sale price over her career, doubling your money sounds like a reasonable rate of return should her offspring be of the same prowess.

An A-League team

The A-League is famously in pretty dire financial strife but for roughly $20-$27 million to secure a license fee, you too could be like Bill Foley and take the reigns at a brand spanking new A-League club.

If we base this off Man City’s aforementioned premium matchday package, you’d only have to go to 3112 matches for the investment to pay itself off.

It’s worth nothing that the all but confirmed Papua New Guinea NRL expansion team is said to cost in the area of $60m so if you wanted to dip your toes into rugby league you may have to find a friend that won Lotto as well.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs made $24m in revenue last season so while this would be a slow burn of an investment, it would soon turn into quite the cash cow.

A stadium (sort of)

Exhausted by the Auckland stadium debate? Look no further than Yarrow Stadium, Taranaki. Currently under construction is the $42m East Stand rebuild so if you’re keeping track at home that would leave you a round $8m to spend... Vegas, anyone?

Flex

A golf course

What says “I have an ridiculous amount of money” better than owning your own golf course. Pegasus Golf Resort and Sports Club is an 18-hole, par-72 golf course conveniently located 22 minutes away from Christchurch International Airport.

It’s up for sale currently for an undisclosed amount but you can safely assume it’d put a sizeable dent into your $50m.

Membership

Golf provides countless opportunities for you to hand over your money and membership to a club can get to quite staggering amounts per year. The Madison Club in California is ranked the most expensive membership in the world coming in at $800,000 for just an up-front initiation fee.

You’d get your money’s worth, though, as the star-studded list of members includes the Kardashian family and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Memorabilia

Being rich is all about materialism and flaunting your possessions and as a sports fan the best way to flex on your peers is to show them your pool room stacked with the rarest and dearest sporting memorabilia.

Imagine being able to take a prospective father-in-law down to your den and show them Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals ‘The Last Dance’ Game Worn Jersey. Then imagine being able to tell them you paid $16m for it and it’s the most expensive piece of sporting memorabilia ever sold.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission