The Worst Owners In Sports History

Bryan Colangelo won the NBA Executive of the Year Award today, following in his father's footsteps and continuing the NBA's dogged persistence in giving awards to teams that get bounced from the playoffs in the first round. That got me thinking about some of the worst men to occupy front offices in the history of sports. It's a delicate game because you have hands-off owners done in by shoddy personnel men and corporate owners who don't give a thought to anything beyond the balance sheet as well as micromanagers who use their cunning to run teams directly into the ground. The list you'll see below is heavier on the latter side, it's much more difficult to blame corporate governors for doing their jobs than it is to find fault with owners who use their positions to burnish their own pockets and fame. Leave your thoughts about who's being judged too harshly, though it's hard to imagine there are many who don't deserve scorn on this list, and who we may be giving too easy a pass. 

Dishonorable Mentions: Harry Frazee (Traded Babe Ruth for 100K), Donald Sterling (Financed Jerry Buss' purchase of the Lakers before turning the Clippers into a laughingstock), The Tribune Company (Wrigley remains Wrigley but a century between titles is really too much), Leon Hess (A wonderful man but a horrendous owner), Tom Hicks (Has done well in hockey but he's baseball's version of the village idiot), Art Modell/Bob Irsay/Walter O'Malley (The slayers of three of the finest spirits in the history of sports).

10. William Daley/Vernon Stouffer/Nick Mileti/Steve O’Neill – Owners of the Cleveland Indians from 1949 to 1993.

There was a reason that Major League was about the Indians. These four guys oversaw a franchise that won about as often as the Washington Generals. After losing in the World Series in 1954 (with a team still benefiting from Bill Veeck’s work building the ’48 World Champions) the Indians wouldn’t return to the playoffs until 1995. They were the only team in baseball to never win a division from 1969-1993, when each league expanded to three divisions, and the list of players who flourished after leaving Cleveland in the four-plus decades of futility is long and illustrious. Off the field, rumors of relocation were constant in the face of low attendance and cash-poor governance.

9. Jeffrey Loria – Owner of Montreal Expos 1999-2002, Owner of Florida Marlins from 2002 to present.

Loria reigned over the death throes of a once popular franchise in Montreal before escaping with one of the most lucrative golden parachutes ever. He harangued the provincial government for a new stadium, took the Expos off of television and became the target of a RICO lawsuit alleging that he effectively destroyed the viability of the baseball market in Montreal. Bud Selig helped orchestrate his purchase of the Marlins while John Henry became the owner of the Red Sox. The Marlins won the World Series in his first full year as owner, which didn’t stop him from firing the majority of the staff that built the team and then oversaw its dismantling over the next few seasons. His most recent transgression was firing Joe Girardi despite his job guiding a green team to a 78-84 record and winning the National League Manager of the Year.

8. Norman Braman – Owner of the Philadelphia Eagles 1985-1994

Recently it was announced that Braman joined the presidential campaign team of Rudy Giuliani, news that was met with violent disapproval by Eagle fans across the internet. Why? He paid himself a lavish salary while sitting on his wallet when players like Reggie White, Clyde Simmons and Keith Jackson walked away from a potentially great team in the nascent days of free agency. There was no salary cap stopping him from keeping his team together in those days nor was there any reason for him to fire Buddy Ryan and replace him with Rich Kotite. An interesting to move in the battleground state of Pennsylvania for Giuliani.

7. Arnold Johnson – Owner of the Kansas City Athletics 1954-1960

How is a guy who was an owner for such a short amount of time ranked among the worst men to ever control professional franchises? By making the team a de facto farm club of the New York Yankees. Johnson was a crony of the Yankee owners of the period and was more than willing to sell promising players to New York to line his coffers and keep his team in the cellar. Between 1955 and 1957, the two teams made 12 trades and the Yankees got guys like Roger Maris, Bobby Shantz, Clete Boyer and Ralph Terry to keep them in championship finery. The A’s got old players and no-talents that kept them in the cellar until Charlie O. Finley bought the team and worked his magic.

6. Ted Stepien – Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers 1980-1983

Like Johnson Stepien was only an owner for the briefest of periods but unlike Johnson Stepien didn’t have a “special relationship” with only one other team in the league. He helped stock the rosters of the entire Association with his misguided trades. He made so many of them that the NBA instituted what’s known as the “Ted Stepien Rule,” which bars teams from trading first round picks in successive seasons because of the woe wrought by Trader Ted. He ran through more coaches than seasons, including 41 games of Chuck Daly before he went to build the Detroit juggernaut, and turned a 37-win squad into a 15-win one almost overnight. And that’s even before you throw in his old-world feelings about how to build a team. 

''This is not to sound prejudiced, but half the squad would be white. I think people are afraid to speak out on the subject. White people have to have white heroes. I myself can't equate to black heroes. I'll be truthful. I respect them, but I need white people. It's in me - and I think the Cavaliers have too many blacks, 10 of 11. You need a blend of white and blacks. That draws, and I think that's a better team.''

Stepien almost killed basketball in Cleveland before selling the team to the Gunds at a very tidy profit. So at least he made out okay.

5. James Dolan – Owner of the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks from 1994 to present

Profligate spending and disastrous performances are the hallmarks of Dolan’s tenure as the boss of Madison Square Garden’s two tenants of note. The Knicks have combined the league’s highest payroll with a record below .500 since the 2001-02 season. The team has made awful trades, botched free agent signings and operated a coaching carousel with Dolan sitting courtside all the while fiddling like Nero when Rome burnt to the ground. The Rangers have improved over the past two seasons, winning their first playoff series in a decade this year, but not before Dolan lavished oodles of money on faded stars like Pavel Bure and Theo Fleury. He’s a miserable manager, rewarding ineptitude time and again while berating and mistreating his underlings and, like everyone on this list, is making himself richer and richer while putting inferior product on the court and on the ice.

4. William Clay Ford – Owner of the Detroit Lions from 1964 to present.

Where do you even begin when compiling the brutal history of Ford’s stewardship of the Lions? A four-time NFL champion in the early days of pro football, the Lions have won exactly one playoff game while owned by Ford. It’s probably not a coincidence that while the Lions have gone down the drain so too has the American automotive industry. With Ford at the forefront of each their demise was preordained. Perhaps his greatest flaw is who he trusts with his asset. Matt Millen was hired in 2001 and has never run a team that won more than six games while getting his contract extended by the owner.

3. Harold Ballard – Owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1971 to 1990

A convicted felon and micromanager that made George Steinbrenner look like a prince among men, Ballard made a mockery of a team that should have been at the top of the hockey heap. He fired people for arbitrary reasons, usually while stinking drunk, and never met a penny that he didn’t want to pinch. When the WHA started up in the early 70’s he didn’t take the threat seriously and was outbid by the upstart league for most of the best players on the club. He kept that up throughout his tenure at the helm, selling off players when they got too pricy but always making sure that he was turning a tidy profit. The team, naturally, never returned to its early heights, not that fans could look to the rafters to remember them. Ballard sold the championship banners to help keep him in silks.

2. Bill Wirtz – Owner of the Chicago Blackhawks from 1966 to present (the Wirtz family has owned the team since 1954)

The Blackhawks haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1961 and any Chicago hockey fan will tell you that is all Wirtz’s fault. He’s overseen trades that sent Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge (along with two Stanley Cups) to Boston and failed to pony up for a contract that would have kept Bobby Hull from leaving for the WHA in 1972. The skimping on players never stopped and extended to a series of anonymous coaches who couldn’t stay out of their own way. He continually raised ticket prices to games in Chicago while refusing to put them on television so that people kept coming to the arena, a scheme that worked for many years. The last decade, however, has seen the Blackhawks go from a civic treasure to an afterthought in the city. They rank last in attendance and if there were a numeric indicator of apathy they would top the league on that front. Not that the NHL cares, though. He’s a member of the Hall of Fame and very, very rich.

1. The Bidwill Family – Owner of the Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals from 1933 to present

The Bidwills have tried their hand at the pro football game in the Midwest and in the Southwest but in neither climate have they found a shred of success. The Cards have only played for the NFL title twice in their history, never since 1948. They’ve won just one playoff game in the four seasons that the team’s actually made the playoffs since that year’s championship game. The only other NFL team to not even appear in a conference championship game is the Houston Texans, who have only existed since 2002. After failing to get the city to build a new stadium for him, Bill Bidwill, the aging current owner, moved the team from St. Louis to Phoenix where he recently cajoled municipal authorities into building them a lavish new arena. Not surprising for a guy who grew up at the knee of a mafia-associated father and learned that there’s no deal worth doing unless you end up making your vig at the end of the day. The length of ownership and depths of franchise depravity combine to make the Bidwills the worst owners in sports history.

(Edited to add: As several commenters stated below, it is Bidwill and not Bidwell. Poor work on my part.)

Comments

[Jack Cobra]

I'll be honest with you man, I went through your list twice and I don't think you missed a major player. Wirtz is just horrendous, he has set hockey back so far in Chicago, it's sad.

[bob]

while there's no question bidwill is the prince of thieves, somewhere in the top 10 should have been vince naimoli.

while he only owned a team for eight years, he did more in a short period of time than any owner i know of including chasing down fans after a game and trying to fight them and cursing at other fans... among a litany of outrageous, boorish behavior.

i think my personal favorites about him were his refusal to let ticketholders with diabetes bring their medication with them into the ballpark, having a blind person thrown out for asking to change seats so he could see and trying to beat up a sportswriter.

and that's just a handful of crap he pulled.

[Tony]

As someone who was raised both a St.Louis/Arizona Cardinals and Blackhawks fan, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Perfect assesments of all these clowns.

A 10 Best Owners would be great, also.

[David]

Surely Hugh Culverhouse of Tampa Bay Bucs deserves to be on the list. His orange popsicle uniforms and orange blazer alone should put him in the top ten.

First he stole the Tampa expansion franchise from the DeBartolo family. Then he strangled the life out of a football crazy area for 2 decades. He didn't allow scouts to go west of the Mississippi river, hired Leeman Bennett from a used car lot, confused Ray Perkins with Vince Lombardi, let Doug Williams leave because a black quarterback wasn't worth it, named an accountant to be team president and had 13 consecutive 10 loss seasons. All while keeping the payroll down to be the most profitable franchise in the league.

It took his death to turn the Bucs into winners.

[Frank Young]

A hall of shame to be sure. I guess the Bidwells are worse than Ballard, but he was the worst thing that ever happened to hockey in this city.

Not that it affected his bottom line. Like all Leaf owners, he knew that he could put Leafs jerseys on the members of the Ice Capades and the people would still come to the games.

In fact, Ballard was such an idiot that he spent his final years being milked dry by an alchy in her mid-50's. A fitting end.

[The Feed]

Bob - Thanks for the Namioli info. The diabetes thing is really horrible. Were mothers allowed to bring bottles for babies or did he demand to watch them feed from the teet?

David - I didn't know the DeBartolos were in the running for Tampa Bay and Culverhouse is another worthy addition to the list.

Frank - It wasn't until I started doing research about this piece that I learned the depth of Ballard's depravity. It says something that there may actually be worse owners than him in sports. Why does something so popular with so many good people draw such slime at the top?

[Rob in Arlington]

Dan Snyder anyone? After Joe Gibbs version 2 fails again this season, Snyder's next gimmick will be to let The Bearded Lady from Ringling Bros take the helm for a season or two. Amazing, FedEx field will continue to sell out.

Maybe these comments are best filed under Dumbest Fans in all of Sports.

[Landru]

Not even a mention of Peter Angelos? Not that I can argue with anyone you've included, but Angelos belongs squarely in any discussion of this topic.

[Uwe]

Where's Tom Hicks? Owns Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars and some English soccer club and could give a crap about all three. Cares little about spending money and winning.

[krusty the clown's superfluous third nipple]

peter angelos.

he destroyed the os.

[Yinka Double Dare]

Stepien deserves special mention because he did the most damage in the shortest period of time. I agree with putting him where he is (because the others have cause misery over ridiculously long periods, worse than a temporary catastrophe), but to have a rule instituted because of you when you only had a few years to ruin a team is truly spectacular.

[Jorge Brett]

A "worst owners" list that doesn't even mention David Glass, owner of the Kansas City Royals, is laughable.

[Adam Rainbolt]

Who's Bidwell? Try spelling it correctly next time.

[Jimbo]

No List would be complete without Art Modell. The worst by far.

[Cappy]

The owners of the Phillies need to be on this list somewhere. There are about 5 of them, and if you ask the average Phillie fan, they won't be able to name more than 2. There has not been a full commitment to winning for the last 15 years, and profitability has reigned king. Our GM is hamstrung by payroll limitations, while they sit back and collect their money from the new ballpark.

[Oops Pow Surprise]

Uh, guys? Charles Comiskey? Or were the other owners such spendthrifts that their players turned to throwing their games for more money?

[Monty]

How does Marge Schott not make this list?

[BSRM]

Personal Bias Revealed: I'd have ranked Ballard first. Leaving aside the allegations that he molested the teenage daughter of one of his employees over a four-year stand (settled out of court), he deserves extra credit for dismantling a Sixties dynasty to the point that the captain of the '67 Leafs (that'd be the last one), Dave Keon, refused to attend the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens, despite the fact that Ballard had died years ago, because the very sight of his greatest triumphs too thoroughly disgusted him when he thought of the way in which Ballard refused to either play him or trade his rights to another NHL team for the final seven years of his career (he played in the WHA instead).

[Seth]

Great piece--I'll throw three infamous Seattle owners:

George Argyros, Mariner owner of the 80s, who tried to move the team twice and wanted to draft Mike Harkey over Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Behring, who took a very successful Hawks team run by the Nordstrom family and ran them into the laughingstock they are perceived as. Oh, and also tried to move them to Cali.

Howard Schultz, who ruined the Sonics and then sold the team to Oklahoma City.

[josh q. public]

how do the jacobs brothers (Boston Bruins) not make this list. Just horrible what they did to a once storied franchise.

[josh q. public]

how do the jacobs brothers (Boston Bruins) not make this list. Just horrible what they did to a once storied franchise.

[Brian]

While I agree WC Ford is one of the WORST owners in all of sports, you've made the common mistake of tying him to Ford Motor Company. While he is a Ford and the grandson of Henry Ford, he hasnt had anything to do with Ford Motor Company in about 40+ years.

[John Arivosis]

Jeffrey Loria is not a terrible owner. The Marlins are the best franchise ever - they are competitive and not blinded by emotional attachment. They have never failed to put a solid team on the field. The Dolans stink! Also, the Colgate J Puffers actually have the worst owner in sports. Those guys just plain stink! Wonk wonk.

[F Story]

What's the name of that guy who owns Epic Security? He is the perfect display of contrasting ownership qualities. On one hand, he is passionate and invested enough to believe that his team is THE team. From a personnel standpoint, however, his team sahks!!

[donn]

the nuttings, plain and simple.
only one thing need be said, 14 losing seasons of pirate baseball and counting.
and the future looks bleak.