Simon Jordan is a businessman famous for being the former owner of Crystal Palace FC an English Premier League Club.
He has not revealed his net worth, but sources on the internet estimate him to be worth about $5 million.
However, the businessman was once worth a lot more. During his time as the Crystal Palace owner, he is reported to have been worth around £75 million (approximately $93.43 million).
Below is a detailed look at Simon Jordan’s net worth, from how he made his money, his ownership of Crystal Palace, his business investment, his media career, and what happened to his fortune.
He made his money selling phones
Simon Jordan earned his initial wealth from a mobile phone retail business that he started with Andrew Briggs.
The two invested £15,000 each to launch The Pocket Phone Company in 1994 before selling it six years later for £73 million to One2One (later rebranded T-Mobile).
The sale of the phone company meant that Jordan earned a fortune of £36.5 million from a £15,000 investment.
He bought Crystal Palace for £10 million
After selling The Pocket Phone Company, Jordan set his sights on buying Crystal Palace, which was, at the time, in administration due to debts.
He made a deal with businessman Jerry Lim, who purchased the club on his behalf via the company CPFC 2000 Ltd.
Immediately after acquiring the club, Lim transferred CPFC 2000 to Jordan, making him the Crystal Palace owner and the youngest Football League club owner. The deal to purchase the club reportedly cost Jordan £10 million.
In his book, Be Careful What You Wish For, Jordan revealed that he could have bought Leicester City FC in a better deal but stated, “Crystal Palace was the club I wanted.”
That’s because he was an ardent Crystal Palace fan from childhood; his father even played for the club.
Unfortunately, Jordan’s football club venture was not as successful as his mobile phone company. In 2010, he was forced to let go of Crystal Palace after it entered administration due to debts.
He now works in the media as a pundit
Simon Jordan may have lost Crystal Palace, but his love of sports has not faded. Since 2019, he has worked as a pundit for talkSPORT, a UK sports broadcaster.
He hosts the mid-morning radio show White and Jordan alongside Jim White.
Jordan has not revealed his earnings as a pundit. However, top talkSPORT presenters can earn as much as 250,000 annually.
He has invested in several businesses and ventures over the years
Besides his phone retail company business and buying Crystal Palace, Simon Jordan has also invested in several other ventures. These include:
1. Bar and Dining
In 2006, Simon Jordan teamed up with restaurant entrepreneur Brenhan Magee to open Club Bar and Dining restaurant in London. The restaurant had a bar, dining room, and a cocktail lounge.
In 2010, Simon Jordan sold the restaurant to Ottolenghi, a group that operates restaurants and delis in London.
2. Octane magazine
Jordan was the co-founder of Octane magazine, a monthly British car magazine.
He launched the magazine in 2002 as part of Octane Media alongside a group of Emap employees before selling his share of the venture in 2006.
3. Real estate investments
The former Crystal Palace owner has invested in several properties over the years.
One of the properties is a £6 million villa in Marbella, Spain, boasting nine bedrooms, a six-car garage, a full-size soccer pitch, and a cinema.
4. Financial investments
Simon Jordan had a £4 million financial portfolio, which he had invested with The Lehman Brothers, an American financial investment firm.
However, the company collapsed, reducing his investment to just £2 million.
He has produced movies and written a book
In 2006, Simon Jordan funded and produced the film Sweeney Todd, an adaptation of the Sweeney Todd “demon barber” character from Penny the Dreadful series.
Jordan also funded (alongside Kevin Spacey, JJ Field, and James Corden) and produced Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, a 2008 film that received critical acclaim.
In addition to the two films, the former Crystal Palace owner also wrote and published the book Be Careful What You Wish For.
The book, a commercial success, is Jordan’s account of how he came to own and then lose the Crystal Palace football club.
He has lost most of his fortune due to financial troubles
After selling his mobile phone company, Simon Jordan became rich. And things looked to be going well for several years, with his purchase of Crystal Palace and several other business ventures.
However, a flurry of financial troubles caused Jordan to lose a significant portion of his fortune.
According to the former Crystal Palace owner, it all started with the 2008 global economic crisis, in which several markets that he had invested in collapsed.
He reportedly lost millions of dollars in Spanish and American real estate and financial markets.
He then spent the next couple of years trying to keep Crystal Palace afloat before losing the club and an investment of around £40 million with it.
He had an extravagant lifestyle
Jordan’s financial downfall was not just a result of business deals gone wrong; he also led an extremely lavish lifestyle.
For example, he once joked about receiving a £4.2million hotel bill after he “lived in a hotel for 10 years.”
Other extravagances include multiple homes and cars, a leased private jet, and a boat. In a 2006 article that Jordan penned for The Guardian, he admitted to being a gambler.
