- 12 hours ago
They bought the teams, then broke the dreams... Join us as we count down our picks for the sports owners who destroyed their franchises through mismanagement, greed, and ego! From financial disasters to toxic workplace cultures, these owners left legacies of failure and frustration for loyal fans everywhere.
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00:00The fans still want to cheer for the players, but they hate who owns it.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the sports owners that managed to do real damage to the teams and franchises they lord over.
00:11We get it. I don't like losing either.
00:16Number 10, Peter Ridsdale.
00:17Could we have given our pick to Newcastle's Mike Ashley or the infamous Glazer era at Manchester United? Sure.
00:23In 1997, Peter Ridsdale was installed as chief executive with a brief to bring back the glory days.
00:29However, there was something especially spectacular about how Peter Ridsdale managed to tank Leeds United at a seemingly great time for the club.
00:36Despite having a prosperous few years at the beginning of his ownership, Ridsdale took several financial gambles that left them with huge debt.
00:42They reacted like a gambler who was on a losing streak in the Las Vegas casino. They went out and they gambled more.
00:49He borrowed £60 million against potential future Champions League gate receipts.
00:53When it didn't work out, he left them in 2003 with £103 million of debt relegated to the third tier of English football.
01:00To make matters worse, he completely denied all wrongdoing.
01:03Did we make mistakes? Yes, of course we did.
01:05Did we probably invest too much?
01:07I think time would suggest that we invested too much as well.
01:10Number 9, Jeffrey Loria.
01:12There's no denying that Loria was one of the most deceitful sports owners of his era.
01:15At some point, maybe.
01:17He managed to secure taxpayer funding for a new stadium for the Miami Marlins by claiming that the franchise was in a dire financial situation.
01:24Turns out it wasn't true.
01:25Loria had been underreporting profits.
01:28Loria's turned off a generation of baseball fans, either through lying about losing money, as the Players Union and Major League Baseball called him out on,
01:36to the debt of the new stadium and how that was funded and what's gone on since then.
01:42He even sold off star players to keep costs down, eventually selling the Marlins for a massive profit in 2017, leaving the team in ruin.
01:49On paper, he pulled off an incredible piece of business.
01:51But along the way, he alienated a fan base and bled the team dry for his own gain.
01:56Looks like he's going to make a killing selling the Marlins for more than a billion dollars.
02:00Yes, that is a billion with a B.
02:03Number 8, Jesus Gil.
02:04To say that the former Atletico Madrid owner, Jesus Gil, had an interesting run as boss would be putting it lightly.
02:10Over the course of his 16-year tenure, he had a truly chaotic time, shutting down the club's youth academy in 1992, a decision that did not go down well with the fans.
02:18He was generally seen as an extremely hot-headed figure, too, known for his legendary public outbursts and rants.
02:24Racist comments, self-aggrandizing behavior, and general foul-mouthedness were always expected with Gil at the helm.
02:29When he finally stepped down from his role as president, the fans rejoiced.
02:33Number 7, Mike Brown.
02:34This doomed owner took over the Cincinnati Bengals from his father in 1991.
02:38The whole purpose of my working life has been to make this team successful in this city.
02:45Believe me, I want to keep it that way.
02:47Instead of entering the role with any degree of grace, he instead made his presence felt by firing popular coach Sam Weich.
02:53He first claimed that Weich resigned, which was a total lie that was later disproven.
02:57From there, he led the Bengals to a 31-year period without a single win in the playoffs.
03:01But I'm not going to get out my crystal ball and start predicting great things.
03:09We have to earn those things.
03:10Sure, you could put that drought down to many different things, but the fans have accused Brown of being excessively tight with spending, even when in the midst of a crisis.
03:17It just looks like Brown is not willing to put his money where his mouth is, and the franchise has suffered as a result.
03:22It's not going to be an easy road.
03:24Our guys are going to be challenged.
03:266. Jerry Reinsdorf
03:28Jerry Reinsdorf picked up a pair of incredible bargains when he bought the Chicago White Sox, and in particular, the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s.
03:35In 1985, an attorney with a passion for basketball named Jerry Reinsdorf and a group of investors purchased the Chicago Bulls and went about building the franchise around a budding young star named Michael Jordan.
03:48The 90s turned the Bulls into the most marketable franchise in sports, so why is Reinsdorf such a divisive character if he had a hand in some of the best sporting businesses of the 20th century?
03:57Establishes the Bulls as one of the upper echelon teams of all time.
04:01I can't tell you how happy I am.
04:02Well, he, alongside Bulls GM Jerry Kraus, managed to treat the GOAT Michael Jordan incredibly badly over the years, especially towards the end of his career.
04:10Breaking up that 90s team at the peak of their powers was truly an unforgivable move.
04:14Generally, he's seen as a shrewd businessman first, with little respect for the athletes who actually made him rich.
04:19The Bulls, because of those championships, have become a worldwide brand.
04:23I mean, you know, you can find Bulls merchandise all over the world.
04:27Number 5. Silvio Berlusconi
04:28Politics and football don't tend to mix, and yet that's exactly how Berlusconi handled his business during his controversial reign as AC Milan owner.
04:36Prese la decisione di entrare in campo anch'io, e da lì cominciò questa storia, che poi si è confermata una storia meravigliosa.
04:49He served three terms as Italian Prime Minister, and in the eyes of many fans, he used the club as his personal plaything and propaganda mouthpiece.
04:56Quelli che abbiamo individuato erano traguardi a cui nessuno credeva, e io sono assolutamente soddisfatto, felice, grazie alle vittorie di questo grande Milan, di essere il presidente di club che ha vinto di più nella storia del calcio mondiale.
05:11Indeed, the club reached some phenomenal highs during his time, but Berlusconi was a dominant presence, frequently flexing his power.
05:18In the 2010s, when the club started to decline competitively, Berlusconi jumped ship rather than commit to the type of cash injection that would help them compete with the elite again.
05:26E questa, la grande, immensa, eterna, profonda, eredità di Silvio Berlusconi.
05:32Number 4. Dan Snyder
05:34His era with the Washington football team was one that the vast majority of fans were delighted to see coming to an end.
05:39When Daniel Snyder purchased Washington's franchise at just 34 years old, he became the youngest owner to buy an NFL team in league history.
05:48Over the course of 24 years, he slowly carved out a reputation as one of the worst owners in sporting history.
05:53Accusations of a toxic work environment and multiple harassment claims were one thing, but his terrible on-field record only made things worse.
05:59The controversies continued. In just a two-year period, Snyder and his team have been investigated by Congress, the Federal Trade Commission,
06:08the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice, and multiple state attorneys general for financial improprieties, sexual misconduct, and a toxic workplace culture.
06:19The team earned just two playoff wins during that period, and Snyder managed to antagonize the fans over and over again, siphoning every last drop of cash he could from them.
06:27Eventually, he sold up shop in 2023 and moved to London, England.
06:30Dan and Tanya Snyder have agreed to sell the Washington Commanders to a group led by Josh Harris.
06:36Number 3. James Dolan
06:37This infamous owner made so many crucial mistakes that he even caused NBA Commissioner David Stern to publicly question his management skills.
06:44The man who calls the shots at the Garden, owns the Garden, owns the Knicks and the Rangers, he's Jim Dolan.
06:49From bizarre hiring decisions to constant meddling in franchise affairs, Dolan ran the formerly great New York Knicks into the ground and didn't do much better with the New York Rangers.
06:58For the fans, it's about winning and losing. And we haven't been doing much winning.
07:03To make matters worse, he was a notoriously petty man, famously banning a fan on the spot for shouting at him to sell the team.
07:09His management missteps have been blamed for the abysmal form of both the Knicks and the Rangers, leading to a long recovery process for both.
07:15What is a problem is when someone becomes confrontational, right?
07:20The, um, you know, and these people clearly were there for a confrontation.
07:26Number 2. Jerry Jones
07:27When he took over the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, it marked the beginning of a remarkable period of success for the team in the 90s.
07:33New Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was on the phone, taking charge, as he promised he would do.
07:38However, the reason for the success was clearly the coaching marvel that was Jimmy Johnson.
07:42Two Super Bowl rings weren't enough for Jones to look past their power struggle, though.
07:46And in the pursuit of pure control, he fired Johnson in 1994.
07:49I think that, uh, uh, Jimmy had, uh, run his course, really, as far as his best with this football team.
07:56Sure, the team won the Super Bowl again in 95, but the cracks were starting to show.
08:00They eventually slumped to a period of real mediocrity for the next 30 years.
08:04Curse to have an owner who couldn't help but meddle in affairs that had nothing to do with his job description.
08:09I'm the number one salesman of the NFL, and I love the game, and I can see where it's, many aspects of it are just bigger than life,
08:18and can be shown, and our fans can get to be a part of that beyond, uh, when just we score a touchdown.
08:26Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
08:29Jimmy Haslam. He made the billion-dollar deal that sunk the Cleveland Browns.
08:33It's very exciting. I can't say any different. And our entire family is very exciting. It's a great opportunity.
08:38Jerry Richardson. Workplace misconduct ruined his Carolina Panthers legacy.
08:41In hindsight, that's probably a mistake, but I'll try to do better.
08:46Robert Sarver. This NBA owner spent two decades meddling in the Phoenix Suns affairs.
08:50That's not a hard decision.
08:54It's good to be in a position where you can say that's not a hard decision.
08:59Woody Johnson. He's the reason for a legendarily dysfunctional New York Jets era.
09:03If we could just complete a pass, it would look good. You know, we've got to complete some passes.
09:08You've got to convince them that you can do something.
09:10Otherwise, it's hard to have, uh, you know, have a game that, uh, you can win.
09:16Francesco Aquilini. He came close to single-handedly ruining the Vancouver Canucks.
09:20I know our fans and the media are frustrated and unhappy.
09:24But I assure you that no one is more frustrated and unhappy than me and my family.
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09:441. Donald Sterling.
09:47When Sterling promised unlimited spending to LA Clippers fans upon buying the franchise in 1981,
09:52the fans had every reason to feel excited. Time would later prove that he was all talk.
09:56Donald Sterling's 30-plus years in the league were largely a dark spot. His team became a joke.
10:01What followed was beyond disappointing. His 33-year period of ownership brought about just seven playoff appearances,
10:07and his reputation as a cheapskate was cited as a huge reason for this.
10:10And not only did Sterling have a hard time with understanding the dynamics of being an owner of a team
10:15versus perhaps him thinking he had ownership of people, he also really showed trouble with black people.
10:22To make matters worse, an audio recording of him making a series of wildly racist remarks in 2014
10:27led to him being immediately banned from the NBA for life.
10:30He sold the Clippers for $2 billion and promptly vanished from sports.
10:33When you look at Donald Sterling's story, the tragedy of it all, and there's many,
10:37is that this should have been a rags-to-riches story.
10:39I mean, he was a poor kid from East LA whose immigrant family worked their way up,
10:43and now he becomes a very successful businessman in real estate.
10:46And instead of just telling that story, he spends most of his adult life chasing Jerry Buss
10:51and trying to chase that for him.
10:52Which sports owner do you think did the most damage to the team they were running?
10:56Let us know in the comments below.
10:57Let us know in the comments below.
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