The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night's drawing crossed the $1 billion mark before noon on Friday, according to the Georgia Lottery.
That’s a lot of cash.
Which got us thinking: what could you buy with $1 billion?
A lot of Frosted Orange
It’s the signature drink at the signature Atlanta fast-food joint, The Varsity. A large Frosted Orange costs $3.45 these days. If you’d like to blow your winnings on a lifetime supply of the cold creamy orange stuff, you’d have enough to buy 289,855,072 large cups worth of it.
So many wings
You’ll never go hungry with $1 billion in your pocket, but if you want to spend it all in one place on one type of food, wings from J.R. Crickets isn’t a bad option. A party wing trey, about 150 wings, will run you $129.99 at the chicken joint in Atlanta. With your winnings, you could pay for about 7.6 million party tray orders, which would equal out to about 1.14 billion wings.
You could actually have more wings than dollars. This is an investment worth making.
Need a little firepower?
The U.S. military is mum on the status of almost two dozen F-22 Raptor fighter jets said to have been left behind at Tyndall Air Force Base when it was evacuated prior to the arrival of Hurricane Michael on Florida's panhandle. But, at a price of $330 million each, you could afford three of the planes and have a little extra for advanced pilot lessons and fuel. You might be able to get them cheaper now since many are feared damaged.
READ | Mega Millions jackpot hits $1B
READ | How and where to play Mega Millions in Georgia
READ | Powerball jackpot: What will $1 billion buy these days?
Just one Chick-fil-A franchise
A billion dollars is a lot of money, but that doesn't matter to the Cathy family. The storied chicken restaurant chain offers franchise opportunities to operate one of its restaurants for an initial fee of $10,000 ($15,000 in Canada). Not bad at all to run one of the most well-liked fast-food options in town.
So why not buy 100,000 of them?
Because most operators are only allowed to purchase one restaurant. And the selection process is tough. More than 40,000 people inquire each year about becoming operators, Carrie Kurlander, vice president of public relations for Chick-Fil-A said earlier this year, and about 100 to 115 new restaurants are open each year. By comparison, of Harvard's 42,749 applicants for the school's incoming freshman class, it admitted 1,962, according to the Washington Post.
But you’ve already beaten the odds by winning the lottery, so this should be no problem for you.
Many trips to Athens
Season ticket packages for University of Georgia football games were priced at $465 this season, according to DawgNation. With $1 billion, you'd have enough money to buy season tickets to see the Dawgs for you and 2,150,536 friends. Of course, Georgia's stadium doesn't seat that many people, so your friends would have to take turns.
More goals for Atlanta United
Atlanta United leads Major League Soccer in goals scored this season with 67 strikes through 32 games. Many of those goals are due to the stellar play of Venezuelan striker Josef Martinez, who has scored 30 goals this season, which is an MLS single season record.
According to a database from the MLS Players Association, Martinez earns an annual salary of $1,387,318. If MLS' salary cap rules didn't prevent it, you could loan some of your money to the club to go get more players like Martinez. In fact, you could pay the salaries for about 720 players of Martinez's caliber.
Big money, fancy cars
If aiming for opulence, look no further than the Rolls-Royce Sweptail. The customized vehicle features a 1920s design, took four years to make and costs $13 million — commissioned for an anonymous wealthy buyer, according to Digital Trends. For $1 billion, 76 of them could be yours.
If Rolls Royce aren't your speed you could try the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. It sold for a record-breaking $48.4 million at an auction in Monterey, California in August, according to Business Insider. For 1 billion, you could own 20 of them.
Buying properties like Uncle Pennybags
As a newfound billionaire, you’d naturally want to make some property investments. Monopoly style. Here’s what $1 billion (with $232 to spare) in American real estate could buy you:
- Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz's mansion in Milton: $4,998,000
- A 12-bedroom, 12-bath mansion in the Hamptons: $175,000,000
- The entire town of Toomsboro, Georgia: $1,700,000
- "One of the most iconic estates in "Beverly Hills 90210": $135,000,000
- A 16,023-square-foot mansion with 157 windows and 551 lightbulbs in Cobb County: $5,250,000
- A six-story, 40-foot-wide townhome near Fifth Avenue and Central Park in New York City: $88,000,000
- Mariah Carey's old Buckhead manse: $2,425,000
- An 11-bed, 22-bath oceanfront beauty in Hillsboro Beach, Florida: $139,000,000
- A one-story 1960s house in Buckhead that was lived in by Beastie Boys member Mike D for a spell: $750,000
- A working cattle ranch of 19,493 acres bisected by Colorado River: $100,000,000
- A spacious five-bed, 4-bed new home in Milton, Georgia: $820,900
- A palatial Mediterranean mansion with a tree-lined private drive, a waterfall, gardens and sparkling pools in Beverly Hills: $129,000,000
- A quarter-acre plot in Lehigh Acres, Florida (this one is pretty confounding): $218,055,868
BUT, wait...
It’s still not enough to buy Mercedes-Benz Stadium
The new home of Atlanta United F.C. and the Atlanta Falcons cost a cool $1.5 billion. So you'd need to have a bit more cash to take the stadium from Arthur Blank. However, you would be able to buy four Georgia Dome's, which cost $214 million to build before it opened its doors in 1992.
You also couldn’t buy the Atlanta Hawks
Your winnings wouldn't be quite enough to buy Atlanta's NBA team, which was valued at $1.15 billion by Forbes earlier this year. However, you could buy several courtside tickets. According to MarketWatch.com, floor seats at this past year's NBA Finals were $133,000 for a pair.
While they aren't listed online, floor seats for the Hawks — who ESPN expects to win just 24 games this year — are probably much cheaper.
AJC staff writers George Mathis and Janel Davis contributed to this story.
Like North Fulton County News Now on Facebook | Follow on Twitter
MORE...
About the Authors
