Wayne Gretzky is a Canadian-born multi-millionaire businessman and former professional ice hockey player. For 20 seasons from 1979 to 1999, he was widely regarded as one of the best ice hockey players of all time. He earned a total of $46 million in NHL salaries over that period. During his playing career, he made an additional $50 million in endorsement fees. After adjusted for inflation, he made almost $150 million in total. To develop an empire that encompasses sports club ownership, vineyards, real estate, and much more, he has invested his money extremely well.
The Beginnings of a Life and a Career
On January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, a boy named Wayne Douglas Gretzky was born. He has three brothers and one sister. In the backyard of the family house, Walter Gretzky taught his son, his siblings, and their friends. He taught them how to play ice hockey, and from an early age, Gretzky showed a natural flair for the sport. He was already playing on a squad with 10-year-olds at the age of 6, and as he got older. Further more people started to notice him as a player. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be booed during games because of his success on the ice. It is which attracted the attention of other players and their parents.
Read also: UEFA cancels the Gazprom deal as top sports organization ban Russia
A relocation to Toronto to play hockey was made possible by his parents. It was done partly to help him succeed in his profession. And partly to assist him leave the depressing environment of his birthplace. He was able to play Junior B hockey with the Toronto Nationals. This was after his parents successfully appealed the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. It is which allowed him to play in the Metro Junior B Hockey League. Further winning Rookie of the Year honours for the 1975-76 season. When he was 16, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds selected him in the 1977 OMJHL draught. And further he went on to play in the league.
A Career in Professional Ice Hockey
A seven-year personal services deal for $1.75 million USD was signed by Gretzky in 1978. When he was only 17 years old (WHA). Because NHL contracts cannot be signed by players under the age of 20. He was forced to play in the WHA at first. Only a few games were played by him with the Racers before he was sent to the Edmonton Oilers in the deal. After the WHA disbanded in 1979, he played an important role in bringing his club to four Stanley Cup triumphs in the NHL.
After only one NHL season with the Edmonton Oilers, he was named Most Valuable Player by his peers and received the Hart Memorial Trophy. As his fame grew, he became the first player in NHL history to score over 200 points in a season and break the 200-point plateau. After that, he was transferred twice more, first to the Los Angeles Kings (1988–96) and then to the St. Louis Blues (1996–97). (1996). He signed a two-year, $8 million USD deal with the New York Rangers as a free agent in 1996.
Read also: Top 10 Players of NBA Right Now Latest Updates 2022!
In 1999, while playing for the New York Rangers, he announced his retirement from the NHL. Gretzky won nine Hart Trophies, ten Art Ross Trophies, five Lester B. Pearson trophies, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as postseason MVP throughout the course of his career. Following his retirement, he was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame. He retired from the NHL with 61 NHL records to his name. He was the only player to have his #99 jersey retired by the league at the time.
After-Retirement Activities
After his playing days were ended, Gretzky transitioned into administration and was named executive director of the 2002 Canadian Olympic Men’s Hockey Team. The Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL) eventually acquired a 10% share from him in May 2000 as part of a partnership with majority owner Steven Ellman. From October 2005 until September 2009, he served as the team’s coach. He joined Oilers Entertainment Group as a partner and vice chairman in 2016.
Involvement In Commercial Activities
Gretzky, in addition to being a professional player, has made significant financial investments in the ownership of professional sports franchises. At the time of purchase, he paid $175,000 CAD for the Hull Olympiques hockey club of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He then sold the franchise in 1992 for $550,000 CAD. Gretzky and John Candy were minority owners of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League when Bruce McNall bought the franchise in 1991; the team was finally sold in 1994. To buy a rare Honus Wagner cigarette card, he teamed up with McNall and paid $451,000 USD. With First Team Sports and Worldwide Roller Hockey, Inc., Gretzky is a co-owner of a number of sports equipment companies.
Read also: Derek Jeter: Former Baseball Player, Businessman, and Ceo
While playing professional hockey, Gretzky signed many lucrative sponsorship agreements that paid him handsomely. Due to endorsement agreements with big worldwide businesses including Coca-Cola, Domino’s, Sharp Corporation, and Upper Deck Company, he was one of North America’s top five highest-paid athletes by 1995. Also in 2017, Gretzky teamed with Andrew Peller Ltd. to establish Wayne Gretzky Estates in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, which will include a winery and distillery. No. 99 Gretzky’s Wine & Whiskey, which opened at Edmonton International Airport in 2016, and Studio 99, which debuted in Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada, are two more of his ventures.
Personal Life
While working as a judge on the television program “Dance Fever,” Gretzky met actress Janet Jones. She accepted his proposal for marriage in January of that year, and the two were married in July of that year. “The Royal Wedding,” as the Canadian tabloids nicknamed their nuptials, apparently cost him over $1 million. Three boys and two girls make up the couple’s brood. Professional golfer Dustin Johnson has had a relationship with Paulina Gretzky, one of their daughters, since 2013. They are parents of two children.
Property
As soon as he joined the LA Kings in the late 1980s, Wayne bought Beverly Park, a gated enclave in Beverly Hills, where he lived for many years. Eric Smidt, a millionaire, bought his mansion a few years later (not the Google billionaire Eric Schmidt). For $3 million, Smidt purchased an empty property next door, and in 2014, the united estate was sold for $40 million.
In 2007, Wayne and his wife built a house in Thousand Oaks, California, within a private country club. A 13,000-square-foot home sits on 6.5 acres of land. Former baseball star Lenny Dykstra, who was promoting himself as a financial expert at the time, bought the Wayne Gretzky mansion in 2014 for a staggering $18.5 million.
Lenny’s guru reputation and the real estate market plummeted a year later. Lenny attempted to sell the property for $18.5 million at a time when selling a house may have been the worst thing ever. After declaring bankruptcy and being jailed on fraud charges, he lost the house in foreclosure. It’s all come full circle now, as Wayne and Janet Gretzky paid $13.5 million for the mansion in 2018. Wayne and Janet put their prized house on the market for $22.9 million in October 2020.