Stephen M. Ross

• 1. Introduction

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  Stephen M. Ross is an American real estate developer, philanthropist and sports team owner, born on the 10th of May 1940. In March 2017, NFL owners gathered to decide whether the Oakland Raiders could move to Las Vegas. The result was 31-1 in favor. Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, was the one owner who voted no.

  By 2026, Forbes listed his net worth at $17 billion and ranked him number 59 on its list of billionaires. Those numbers invite questions. How does a Detroit native with training in tax law build one of the largest property companies in the country? What does it take to go from a Wall Street dismissal to a skyline of his own making? And why did the league that welcomed him as an owner later sanction him? The answers start long before the football stadium, in a loan that paid for law school.

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• 2. A Borrowed Start

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  Detroit is where Stephen Michael Ross was born and raised, in a Jewish family. He first attended Mumford High School in Detroit and later graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. After two years at the University of Florida, he transferred to the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1962.

  A law degree came next. Ross received a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University in 1965 and a Master of Laws in Taxation from the New York University School of Law in 1966. His uncle, the businessman Max Fisher, lent him the money for those later degrees. Ross has called Fisher "the most important role model and inspiration for me in life."

  Coopers & Lybrand in Detroit gave Ross his first job, as a tax attorney. In 1968 he moved to New York City and became an assistant vice president in the real estate subsidiary of Laird Inc. He then joined the corporate finance department of Bear Stearns.

  The year 1972 brought a firing. Ross clashed with a superior at Bear Stearns and lost his job. He lived off $10,000 lent by his mother, worth about $67,000 in 2021 dollars. His knowledge of federal tax law became his product. He organized deals for wealthy investors, who could shelter income through the generous incentives the government offered for building federally subsidized affordable housing. He earned $150,000 in his first year.

  The venture took the name Related Housing Companies, and its early output was thousands of subsidized apartments for low and moderate incomes across the country.

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• 3. Building Related

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  By the 1980s, Ross was steering the company toward higher-profile projects. In the 1990s he hired the architect Robert A.M. Stern to design The Chatham, on the corner of 65th Street and Third Avenue.

  Headquartered in New York City, the company now keeps offices in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., South Florida, Abu Dhabi and London. It directly employs about 4,000 people. Its portfolio of mixed-use, residential, retail, office, trade show and affordable properties is valued at over $60 billion. The company describes its chosen locations as "premier high-barrier-to-entry markets."

  More than 40,000 units make Related the largest owner of luxury residential rental properties. Its mixed-use projects include Deutsche Bank Center in New York, CityPlace in West Palm Beach and The Grand in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry. The biggest is Hudson Yards, a 28-acre site on Manhattan's west side. It is the largest and most expensive real-estate project in America, at almost a billion dollars an acre. To entice Coach into moving there, Ross had an atrium built inside the development.

  Related is also a major investor in Equinox Fitness Clubs, SoulCycle and fast casual restaurant chains.

  In July 2024, the company announced that Ross would step down as chairman. He wanted to focus on Related Ross, the Miami Dolphins and F1. He stayed on as non-executive chairman of Related Companies.

  RSE Ventures, a private investment firm, came earlier. Ross co-founded it in 2012 with Matt Higgins, a former executive vice president of the New York Jets. The firm focuses on sports and entertainment, media and marketing, food and lifestyle, and technology. It builds, owns and operates companies including the Drone Racing League, Thuzio, VaynerMedia and Relevent.

  Seventy acres of land in West Palm Beach, amassed over two decades, anchor Ross's newest plan. He is looking to invest $10 billion there, with six million square feet of office space, 1.4 million square feet of condos and nearly 900 hotel rooms. In December 2025, Related Ross received a $772 million loan for two office towers, one of the largest construction loans in Florida history. In January 2026, Ross committed $50 million toward a Vanderbilt University campus in the city. On the 2nd of April 2026, Related Ross broke ground on a 28-story condominium along the water.

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• 4. Owning the Dolphins

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  In February 2008, Ross paid $550 million for half of the Miami Dolphins. The price also covered Dolphin Stadium, now called Hard Rock Stadium, and the surrounding land. The seller was the then-owner Wayne Huizenga. The agreement let Ross later become the managing general partner.

  On the 20th of January 2009, Ross closed on another 45% of the team from Huizenga. The whole deal was worth $1.1 billion and left Ross holding 95% of both the franchise and the stadium. He announced that Bill Parcells would stay on as director of football operations.

  Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Venus Williams and Serena Williams later joined as minority owners.

  In 2013, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made a pitch to the Florida legislature on Ross's behalf. The Dolphins wanted $3 million a year for 30 years to renovate the stadium, with Ross covering 70% of the cost. Lawmakers rejected the request, even though they had granted over $100 million in subsidies to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Ross ended up spending $500 million of his own money to refresh the stadium.

  The renovated grounds have since hosted two major sporting events. The Miami Open has been played at Hard Rock Stadium since 2019. Formula One arrived in 2022, on the Miami International Autodrome, a purpose-built temporary circuit around the stadium that Ross owns. He had tried for several years to bring a Miami Grand Prix to town. The Autodrome holds exclusive rights to host the race through the 2041 season, the longest race contract in the sport. Its layout was designed so that local residents would not be disrupted. It is one of the newest racetracks in the United States, and in 2024 it received minor tweaks, including a resurfaced track.

  In December 2024, Ross agreed to sell a 10% stake in the Dolphins to the private equity giant Ares Management, at an $8.1 billion valuation. He also sold 3% to Joe Tsai, a co-founder of Alibaba. These were among the first sales under new NFL rules that let private equity firms buy minority stakes in teams.

  In March 2026, Ross sold 1% of the holding company behind the Dolphins for $125 million. That valued the company at $12.5 billion, a record for a minority transaction in sports. The buyer was Lin Bin, a co-founder of Xiaomi.

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• 5. Penalties and Lawsuits

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  On the 1st of February 2022, a federal class-action lawsuit named Ross and the Dolphins, among other teams. It was brought by his former head coach, Brian Flores. Flores alleged that Ross had offered him a $100,000 bonus for every game he lost during the 2019 season. The NFL publicly denied the allegations, saying: "We will defend against these claims, which are without merit."

  On the 2nd of August 2022, the league announced the result of a separate six-month independent investigation led by Mary Jo White and a team of lawyers. It found that the Dolphins had broken the anti-tampering policy on three occasions between 2019 and 2022. The team had held impermissible conversations with quarterback Tom Brady and with Sean Payton, then coach of the New Orleans Saints. Both men were under contract with other teams. As punishment, the Dolphins lost their 2023 first-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round pick.

  Ross himself was fined $1.5 million and suspended through the 17th of October 2022. During that time he could not be at the team's facility or represent it at any event. He was also barred from league meetings until the annual meeting in 2023 and removed from all league committees indefinitely.

  Bruce Beal, the vice chairman and a limited partner, was fined $500,000. He could not attend league meetings for the rest of the 2022 season. On the central question raised by the Flores suit, the investigation did not find that the Dolphins intentionally lost games during the 2019 season.

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• 6. Gifts to Michigan

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  A $100 million gift in 2004 was, at the time, the largest the University of Michigan had ever received. The university renamed its business school the Ross School of Business, and the gift paid for a new building. The Stephen M. Ross Academic Center was completed in January 2006.

  A partnership named RERI also entered the picture. Ross invested in it, and it was donated to the university. RERI obtained its own appraisal for the donation, at $32.935 million. The university sold the remaining interest in December 2005.

  Ross also served as co-chair of the university's fundraising campaign, which was completed in May 2007.

  On the 12th of September 2013, it was announced that Ross had committed another $200 million. It was split equally between the Ross School of Business and the athletic department. The gift replaced Charlie Munger's 2013 contribution of $115 million as the largest single gift in the university's history. The university announced plans to rename its athletics campus in his honor.

  On the 20th of September 2017, Ross gave $50 million more. Most of it supports career development programs, action-based learning experiences, and the recruitment and development of junior faculty.

  Lifetime contributions of $478 million make Ross the largest donor in the university's history. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, his higher education gifts rank behind only those of fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

  In 2020, Ross announced another $100 million to kickstart fundraising for the University of Michigan Detroit Center for Innovation, which carries his giving back to the city where he was born.

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• 7. Causes and Politics

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  In 2015, Ross founded RISE, a coalition that fights racism and promotes social justice within the sports industry. Its partners include NASCAR, the National Lacrosse League, the PGA of America, the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, the United States Tennis Association and USA Track & Field. In 2020 he gave RISE an additional $13 million, bringing his total commitment to $30 million.

  That same year, Ross committed $63.5 million to the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, raising his total contribution to the program to $100 million. The center has a network of over 350 experts working in cities around the globe. Ross also helped establish the WRI Ross Center and the New Urban Mobility alliance, known as NUMO, with contributions of $36.5 million.

  Ross is chairperson emeritus of the Real Estate Board of New York, the city's leading real estate trade association. As a trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, he was involved in planning a major renovation of the Frank Lloyd Wright building. He also sits on the board of Cornell Tech, a $2 billion redevelopment of Roosevelt Island.

  In 2023, Ross donated $8 million to education initiatives in Palm Beach County. The money created the Stephen M. Ross Emerging Scholars Program at Palm Beach State college. It funds college prep in high schools and scholarships for graduates of Palm Beach Lakes and Forest Hill Schools.

  Ross has given major donations to both the Democratic and Republican parties. Recipients include Chuck Schumer, Jerry Nadler, Andrew Cuomo, George Pataki and the Republican National Committee. He was a major supporter of the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

  In August 2019, it was reported that Ross would host a major fundraiser for the Donald Trump 2020 campaign at his Hamptons home on the 9th of August. Calls for boycotts followed. A spokesperson for Equinox and SoulCycle told CNN that neither company had anything to do with the event and that no company profits are used to fund politicians.

  In 2021, his super PAC, Common Sense NYC, spent $550,000 to oppose eight progressive Democrats in New York City's City Council election. Six of the eight were defeated.

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• 8. Honors and Home

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  In 2009, The New York Observer named Ross number 3 on its list of the most powerful people in New York real estate. In 2017, the University of Michigan presented him with an ESPY Award for his philanthropic contributions to the school.

  The Jackie Robinson Foundation gave him a ROBIE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and in 2019 he was inducted into the NFL Leadership Hall of Fame. In 2020, Ross and the Miami Dolphins received the Paul Tagliabue Award for diversity. The following year, Sports Business Journal recognized him as a leader in diversity and inclusive hiring.

  Ross has two children from his first marriage. In April 2021, it became public that he was divorcing his second wife, Kara Ross, born Kara Gaffney, after 18 years of marriage. He has two stepchildren with her.

  In Palm Beach, Ross owns an 11,000 square foot oceanfront mansion named "The Reef."

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