Worst Owner in Sports History?

I am going to say Victor Kiam, in New England.
He ran a carnival on and off the field.
Would like to hear thoughts from the gallery.

 

Andrew Freedman, All-Time Division.

Ted Stepien, in relatively recent decades.

 

Starman beat me to Stepien.

Donald Sterling and Bill Wirtz are up there.

 

Caligula.

 

There may've been worse over short periods of time (Stepien, John Y. Brown), but Donald Sterling has to be the worst to stay in the game for three decades. Most epically incompetent owners at least have the good sense to get out after a few years, Sterling never goes away.

 

I'd like to say Frank McCourt, but the Dodgers had relative success on the field under his stewardship and he made a buttload of money.

He is, however, a sleazy robber barron.

 

Here's a vote for Donald Sterling.

 

Tom Monaghan (Sup Starman?)
William Clay Ford
Ted Leonsis (skyrocketing up the rankings at a fever pitch)
Donald Sterling
Kevin McClatchy
David Galss
Jeremy Jacobs (pre 2011)

 

Which is one of the more galling things about this topic--no matter how horrifyingly incompetent these guys are, they always seem to come out way ahead when they sell.

 

Fred Wilpon deserves mention but with one vote mine goes to
Jim Dolan.

 

Probably not the worst but definitely on that end of the spectrum:

Bill Bidwill in St. Louis. He was famous for changing the locks to the locker room whenever he would fire another hapless Cardinals coach.

 

Another vote for Stepien. When you have a rule named after you to stop teams from committing franchise suicide, you're bad.