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Best owners in sports (past and present)

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by outofplace, Oct 15, 2009.

  1. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    Green Bay.
     
  2. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    I'm guessing there is an owner on this thread.
     
  3. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Maybe not now, but I think Mario Lemieux will be on this list.

    The man saved the Pens once as a player, then won a championship, and as an owner, and also won a championship.
     
  4. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Make that two championships as a player. But I agree that he has done a very good job as an owner. I wouldn't put him high on the list just yet, but he does seem to be on his way.
     
  5. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Not necessarily the best owners, but the smartest: The two brothers (too lazy to look up their names) who owned the St. Louis franchise in the ABA.

    When the merger happened, they negotiated a piece of the NBA's TV contract each year, for infinity. When the NBA got hot, the brothers made millions each year, and continue to do so.

    The NBA has tried to buy them out, to no avail. One brother said they came close with a $40 million deal. But the NBA wanted to pay it off over 8 years, and the brothers wanted 5 years. So, they continue to cash their million-dollar checks for doing nothing other than folding their franchise.
     
  6. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I'll cast another vote for Lamar Hunt and Peter O'Malley. Current owners in the Big 4 could learn a lot from those two.

    I'd like to hear from Canadian SportsJournalists.com about whether there are any former NHL owners who would make this list.
     
  7. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Bill Davidson, well I mean, before he died.
     
  8. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

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    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  9. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    Jerry Buss.
    He's kept the Lakers relevent for years and, even through there were a couple down years, they were able to avoid the big dips Boston and Chicago took.
    Jerry West gets a lot of credit for trading for Kobe and signing Shaq, but Buss has moved the Lakers to the forefront of LA and the NBA.
     
  10. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member


    I think they live in Malilbu now. Very shrewd dudes.

    From Wiki: The NBA placated John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, by giving him a $3.3 million settlement in exchange for shutting his team down. (Brown later used much of that money to buy the Buffalo Braves of the NBA.) But the owners of the Spirits, the brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, struck a prescient deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, a one-seventh share from each franchise, in perpetuity. With network TV deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas wealthy, earning them $168 million as of July 2006, according to a Los Angeles Times report. (The NBA nearly succeeded in buying out the Silnas in 1982 by offering $5 million over eight years, but negotiations floundered when the siblings demanded $8 million over five.) The current TV deal gives the Silnas $14.57 million a season; on June 27, 2007, it was extended for another eight years, ensuring another $100 million-plus windfall for the former Spirits owners.
     
  11. Bodie_Broadus

    Bodie_Broadus Active Member

    Damn, that is fucking genius.
     
  12. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Ozzie and Dan Silna, for the sake of accuracy. I'd actually have a hell of a lot more respect for them if they had actually dug in their heels and insisted on getting a franchise in the NBA, and then operating a successful franchise in St. Louis and actually making that money through some skill, rather than simply being in the right place at the right time.

    I've read in a couple places (no idea if it's true or not) that in fact they're the reason there has never been any serious move to put an NBA team in St. Louis in the 35 years since, that there's some codicil in their perpetual money-for-nothing deal which automatically gives them right-of-first-refusal on any franchise entering the St. Louis metro area, which has basically scared all possible investors off.

    So (if this is in fact true) not only are they parasitic leeches, collecting millions off a league whose success they had nothing to do with, they've salted the ground forever for an NBA team in the market. Thanks a fucking lot.
     
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