10 Weird and Ruthless Sports Owners Stories
Owning a sports team might be every fan's dream, but there comes a responsibility while doing so, with one of the unwritten rules being: Don't make anyone mad at you.
Now, that might be hard to follow considering, you know, just because a person is rich doesn't mean that he or she is good at knowing how to spend that money, so some sports team owners flop because they just can't handle the pressure and decision-making that the job title entails.
With several owners proving to be ruthless and weird, I figured I'd dive into some of the stranger stories ever told about themโand, trust me, these are really odd.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
10. Jim Harbaugh Telling Jed York To Leave A Meeting That Was For "Men Only"
OK, so this story might technically tell more about the strained relationship between former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh and the team's owner, Jed York, but it's still something that had to be acknowledged here because, wow!
According to a report from Bay Area Sports Guy, when York walked into a room where Harbaugh was addressing his team back during the 2014 season, he actually told the 36-year-old York to leave because the meeting was for "men only."
"Source: midway thru 2014, York walked into meeting Harbaugh was holding w/ players, & Harbaugh told Jed that the meeting was for "men only"
โ Kyle McLorg (@Kyle_McLorgBASG) June 8, 2015"
There have been a lot of owner-coach tiffs throughout the years, but seeing Harbaugh punk out his owner like this is one that falls near the topโwhich is probably why York's bio on the team's website even removed any mention of success under Harbaugh.
9. Clayton Bennett's Dirty Lie To The City Of Seattle
There's almost nothing worse than a sports team owner telling a fanbase one thing and then completely doing the opposite. But that's what Clayton Bennett did to the city of Seattle after purchasing the former Seattle Sonicsโcurrently the Oklahoma City Thunderโin 2006.
With some kid named Kevin Durant at the forefront of the Sonics' future, Bennett pulled the rug out from under Seattle hoops fans in a swift and ruthless move, declaringย Seattle's Key Arena wasn't what he wanted, thus demanding over $500 million in public funds for a new one.
When he didn't get his wish, Bennett packed up ship and moved the team to OKC, where he benefitted from $120 million in corporate welfare to help improve facilities for his team.
Dirty and conniving, that's how Clay Bennett played Seattle.ย
8. Stan Kroenke's Burn Of The Entire City Of St. Louis
It's one thing for Rams owner Stan Kroenke to move his team from St. Louis to Los Angeles because he sees greener pastures. It's another thing to do so and rip the city that has done nothing but love his team since moving there in 1995.
Unfortunately, Kroenke didn't care much about feelings, because, in his proposal to move the Rams, he completely ridiculed St. Louis for being a down-and-out city, with unemployment and hope for financial infrastructure low.
As if losing their football team to the star-studded city of L.A. wasn't enough, Stan Kroenke ruthlessly laid into the residents of St. Louis without hesitation to try to prove his point about why he needed to moveโand fans will never forgive him for that.
7. Art Modell's Ridiculous Amounts Of Debt, Leading To Relocation Of The Cleveland Browns
Like others on this list, former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell made the terrible mistake of moving his team from one city to another because of, well, money.
But more than just moving from Cleveland to Baltimore, it was Modell's amazingly deep debt that has to be recognized here, because the guy had almost no right at all to even be owning a pro sports team.
One of the more famous stories about Modell's money problems comes from when he signed free-agent wide receiver Andre Rison before the 1995 season, where the owner actually took out a $5 million loan in order to pay Rison's signing bonus.
That's absurd to think about ever happening now, but, just 20 years ago, the NFL wasn't as strong financially as it is now, with TV contracts and revenue sharing being distributed to each team.
6. From Bobby Bonilla To Bernie Madoff, New York Mets Owner Fred Wilpon Has Struck Out
Forget the fact that New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon was directly connected to con artist Bernie Madoff, who routinely had a major role in baseball decisions like free-agent signings. Let's just talk about how Wilpon, who is/was well-known for deferring player salaries over years, did so with former outfielder Bobby Bonilla, whom the team will pay nearly $1.2 million each year till 2035.
No, that's not a joke.
What is humorous is the inability that Wilpon has shown in running the Mets, as he and his family rarely accept responsibility for their poor decisions, instead deflecting criticism to the press.
Oh, and the fact that Fred's son, Jeff Wilpon, allegedly fired a Mets employee when it was discovered that the female hadย a baby out of wedlock is despicable and might be the lowest move ever, if true.
5. Robert Irsay Packs Up And Leads The Colts From Baltimore To Indianapolis
While Robert Irsay's son, Jim Irsay, is still the owner of the Indianapolis Colts today, that doesn't mean that the family has received high praise like the Rooney family has in NFL circles.
Some of that has to do with some unfortunate circumstances with Jim, but a lot of it stems from his father's decision to bolt the city of Baltimore for Indy in the dark and snowy night in 1984.
Just four years prior, Irsay stood in front of a new training complex for his team in Baltimore declaring that the building stood for the family's dedication to bringing winning football to the city.
What a crock.
Robert Irsay's feeling must have changed fast, because he sneaked out of town four years later, lying to the fans and, in a more overlooked move, allowing his ego to get in the way of drafting a guy named John Elway in 1983 with the No. 1 pick.
Just an awful, awful owner.
4. When Donald Sterling Held Blake Griffin's Hand During An Entire Party
Rather than harp on the racist comments that former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling made in 2014 that led to him getting banned for life from the league, let's talk about that one time the guy held the hand of superstar Blake Griffin during a party the owner was hosting in Malibuโall night long.
With the then-rookie meeting Sterling for the first time, Griffin didn't want to disrespect the guy by dipping and trying to "blend in with the rest of the crowd," as Blake put it in a letter for The Players' Tribune.
In that same article, here's how the superstar described that night:
"Things were about to get weirder. Two blonde models showed up on either side of me. They had clearly been hired for the event. I knew this because they were wearing size XXXX-L Clippers T-shirts tied at the stomach. I looked at Sterling. He had a big dumb grin on his face. I looked at one of the girls, as if to say, โUhhh, you donโt have to do this.โ She looked back: "Uhhh, yes I do."
So I walked down the stairs with the two girls arm-in-arm, hoping that was the end of it. That was not the end of it. At the bottom of the stairs, Donald grabbed my hand again. I tried to do the old shake-and-release move. No dice. He kept holding on. "Blake, isnโt thisย fabulous?ย I need to introduce you toย everyone."
"
Sterling and his franchise was always in the shadow of the Lakers, looking up at their championship banners and flashy retired numbers, but the entire story that Griffin describes is so weird that it's worth reading to fully understand how strange the former Clips owner was.
3. Mike Brown's Threat To Move The Cincinnati Bengals To Cleveland In Order To Get A New Stadium
For years, the Cincinnati Bengals were the laughingstock of the NFL, not only embarrassing themselves on the field, but striking out on high draft picks and having an owner, Mike Brown, who was the definition of a penny-pincher.
While that has changed since the team has had Marvin Lewis as head coach, one thing remains constantโMike Brown.
Not only did Brown once, allegedly, threaten to move the team to Cleveland to replace the Browns once they relocated to Baltimore because he wanted a new stadium, but once he did get his new home digs, it was ridiculed by Business Insider for being one of the worst stadium financing deals ever.
And then there's the news today that Brown, allegedly, voted against the St. Louis Rams' move to Los Angeles because, in a nutshell, he prefers the "status quo" and "[refuses] to go along with anything that helps the league become bigger and better."
Yeah, that's saying he hates to make money from revenue sharingโalthough, Brown has denied such reports, but it makes you wonder.
2. Charles Wang's Entire Reign As Owner Of The New York Islanders
Sure, reports are that the New York Islanders' move to Brooklyn is a disaster, but even before they were planning on leaving Long Island, things weren't much better when former owner Charles Wang was in charge of things.
For that, Islanders fans: #NeverForget.
Wang may have had a lot of money, eventually selling the team for $485 million somehow, but he was an atrocious owner who had no idea, or business, being in charge of a pro sports team.
Whether it was the ridiculous contract he handed to former goalie Rick DiPietro, hiring and then firing a general manager in just six weeks, or the unorthodox way he ran his franchise, Charles Wang's tenure with the Isles was ludicrous, and it set the team back years.
1. Jeffrey Loria Pulls A Real Number On The City Of Miami To Get His New Stadium
There are bad owners who have lied to fans, moved their teams, held hands for hours at a party with their star players and run a franchise into the ground so bad with poor decisions, and then there's Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.
Loria, who used to own the Montreal Expos and has run the Marlins since 2002, has been called the most dishonest owner in sports by ESPN for some of the moves he has made.
Some of those decisions include him ripping the Expos from Montreal for a boatload of cash by moving them to D.C., then getting the Marlins as his consolation prize. He then conned the city of Miamiย into borrowing $500 million to build a new stadium that no one even goes to.ย
He cuts payroll and/or trades the team's best players, threatens baseball people with his own personal opinions and, well, is a hack of an owner who no one can trust.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
