Things We All Love to Hate: Sports Team Owners

www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright The newsletter to fuel — and thrill — your mind. Read for deep dives into the unmissable ideas and topics shaping our world. Mar 21, 2022 Things We All Love to Hate There are many billionaires in the world (more than 2,700 at last count) but it takes a special breed of megalomaniac to buy a professional sports franchise. Sometimes, as HBO’s new series Winning Time about the Jerry Buss-owned Los Angeles Lakers showcases, that lust for power can lead to era-defining dynasties and entertaining, if cartoonish, sideshows. More often, as with Major League Baseball’s recent lockout, it merely devolves into ruthless comic book villains — or “baseball’s oligarchs” as Sen. Bernie Sanders [referred to them]( — trying to squeeze every last penny from the production of the sports they allegedly love. In this edition of Things We All Love to Hate, we gaze high into the gilded luxury boxes in the hopes of spotting that rarest of preening birds in its natural habitat: the sports team owner. Why Do We Hate Sports Team Owners? Their Biases Owners are not the most enlightened bunch. Former Cincinnati Reds owner and [insensitive racist]( Marge Schott was finally banned from baseball after comments endorsing Hitler. Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was forced to sell the team after his own [racist comments]( were revealed. Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder spent several years defending the indefensible Redskins name with [AstroTurf PR campaigns]( and other stunts. Their Blunders Money can’t buy you happiness nor can it buy you acumen. The NBA instituted the [Stepien Rule](, which prevents teams from trading away first-round draft picks in consecutive years, to protect owners against themselves after former Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien traded away five consecutive first-round draft picks in the 1980s. A former United States Football League owner named Donald Trump not only submarined his own franchise (the New Jersey Generals) but the [entire league]( when he demanded it move its game schedule to the fall from the spring to compete with the NFL, which filed an antitrust lawsuit that eventually led to the USFL’s collapse. And of Course Their Greed Cities often give sports franchises taxpayer-funded incentives that end up benefiting the team’s owner more than its fans. For example, Raiders owner Al Davis agreed to move the NFL team back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1994 after the city promised to renovate the Coliseum, an effort which has cost taxpayers an estimated [$350 million](. Meanwhile, over the past 20 years, [the value of the Raiders]( franchise has soared from $421 million to $3.4 billion. SHARE: What do you hate most about your team’s owner? Join the conversation and share with us on [FB](, [IG]( or [Twitter]( with the hashtags #ThingsWeAllLovetoHate #OZY How Did Owners Become Such a Problem? Labors of Love The MLB lockout is just the latest in a long line of labor disputes between owners and players. More than a century ago, penny-pinching Chicago White Sox owner [Charles Comiskey]( made his players wash their own uniforms and when they won the 1917 pennant he gave them cheap champagne instead of promised bonuses — stinginess that some say contributed to the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Power Plays Players are not the only ones who have been mistreated. Legendary (for the wrong reasons) Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard was not only [convicted of fraud]( in 1972 for using the team’s money to remodel his house, but was also known for turning off arena water fountains on hot days to sell more drinks. He even [strong-armed the Beatles]( into performing two shows in Toronto in 1965 instead of the one they had booked. Itchy Feet Owners have a knack for seeking out greener pastures and leaving cities without their beloved teams. As the city of Baltimore slept on March 28, 1984, Colts owner Bob Irsay [hired moving trucks]( to load up the team’s offices and move the franchise to Indianapolis overnight, leaving Colts fans shell-shocked the following morning. Fun and Frustrating Facts Ticketmastered The [average cost]( for a family of four to attend an NFL game, including tickets, food and parking, reached $568 last season, up 95% in the past 30 years. Diversity Deficit If you think professional coaching staffs lack diversity, take a look at the owners’ boxes, which remain [overwhelmingly white](. Baseball has the least racially diverse class of owners, with just one person of color with a majority stake in a team: Arte Moreno, who owns the Los Angeles Angels. Obscenely Rich Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, is just the [second wealthiest]( sports team owner with an estimated $68.7 billion U.S. dollars. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and owner of the Indian Premier League Mumbai Indians, is worth an estimated $84.5 billion. Watch Rick Ross [The Hustle Don't Stop]( on The Carlos Watson Show Could Things Get Better for Sports Fans? Community-Owned Teams Collective ownership is one way forward. The NFL’s Green Bay Packers are a nonprofit team, owned collectively by thousands of fans who never have to worry about them leaving their frigid small media market in Wisconsin. And a DAO or "decentralized autonomous organization” [formed last year]( with the hopes of becoming the first virtual community of fans to pool enough funds to buy an NBA team. Fighting Relocation and Exploitation There are ways for cities and their fans to fight back against relocation threats from owners. One is to use the legal threat of eminent domain to reclaim stadium land, and maybe the team itself, for the public good. Another check on ownership is to convince policymakers to regulate sports leagues as the virtual monopolies that they are: Threatening baseball's antitrust exemption is a favorite pastime of politicians across the spectrum, including [recent overtures]( by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley after MLB moved its All-Star Game out of Georgia. Name and Shame “If owners want to keep their teams,” former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recently wrote in [The Guardian](, “they should keep their racist, misogynistic, homophobic and xenophobic views to themselves.” There is no easy way to police or punish owners for their views, but we can, as Abdul-Jabbar puts it, “call them out publicly and relentlessly, if not to change their minds, then to change their public behavior.” SHARE: How would you keep sports team owners in check? Join the conversation and share with us on [FB](, [IG]( or [Twitter]( with the hashtags #ThingsWeAllLovetoHate #OZY This Will Make You Feel Better…. The George Steinbrenner Health Watch Before the New York Yankees returned to championship glory in the 1990s, bitter fans were all too eager to lament the franchise’s fallen state and bemoan the team’s outspoken owner, George Steinbrenner. In the mid 1980s, Saturday Night Live offered its own “continuing service to the New York Yankees fans” in the form of a “[George Steinbrenner Health Watch](” with disappointing news reports about his continuing good health. Community Corner What do you hate about sports team owners? Share your thoughts with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com. See the Results From the Billionaires in Space Poll: ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on “the New and the Next.” OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. [www.ozy.com]( / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. That’s OZY! [TV]( | [PODCASTS]( | [NEWS]( | [FESTIVALS]( A Modern Media Company OZY Media, 800 West El Camino Mountain View, California 94040 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Read Online](