Worst owners in sports
 

Gimmie 5

No order but i'll add to my post later.

Dolan - Knicks
Jones - Cowboys
Snyder - Redskins

These 3 because they seem to be out of touch with the game. Now I do think Jones/Snyder are great owners if they stay as just a fan/owner. But as long as they remained involved in every aspect, they stay on my list.

Dolan just sucks.

MLB - Angelos
NBA - Dolan
NFL - Snyder
NHL - Melnyk

Do the Wilpons still count?

What is the criteria? Whether the franchise has won in an extended amount of time or how they hold the city tax payers hostage, or do more to increase blight until they can collect all the land they need, or how they don't pay any of their taxes or the water bill for a decade or......

The criteria is your own. Whatever makes a bad owner in your opinion, that's what I want to hear.

Stan Kroenke might not be the worst in any particular sport but he's definitely in the Bottom 5 in three. The NFL with the Rams, the NHL with the Avalanche, and the English Premier League with Arsenal.

Others would be Peter Angelos (Orioles), Dan Snyder (Redskins), Robert Nutting (Pirates), and James Dolan (Knicks).

That's five owners of American sports teams. I'll give you five more owners in the English Premier League:
1. Mike Ashley-Newcastle United
2. Bill Kenwright-Everton
3. David Gold and David Sullivan-West Ham United (I'm counting them as one)
4. Gao Jisheng-Southampton
5. Gino Pozzo-Watford

Counting Stan Kroenke those are six lugnuts English soccer fans despise with good reason.

I'll top the lot Steve Dale Bury FC, he ran them into the ground they got put into administration and given a deadline by the people who run football in England or Bury would go out of business. He then sat on his hands refusing to sell to various groups who could save them, then minutes before the deadline he decided to sell. They were then given an extension, Dale then started to mess about with the interested parties, deadline passed and Bury went out of business and are now just pretty much a bar team.

When one of the owners sends their organisation out of business then they can rival Dale.

While he doesn't fall into the category of an owner who can mess up three teams at once, from a personal fandom perspective, Anthony Precourt, who owned the Columbus Crew and now own the Austin MLS franchise is a pretty slimy operator.

He worked hard through the years to sabotage the Crew's fanbase support because he wanted to move them. Add to that announcing his intention to move them as the Crew began the playoffs was a particularly low class act. I have nothing against Austin and as an MLS fan, I hope the franchise succeeds, but I will never be able to hear his name without wanting to spit.

The Top Ten:

1) Dan Snyder
2) Dan Snyder
3) Dan Snyder
4) Dan Snyder
5) Dan Snyder
6) Dan Snyder
7) Dan Snyder
8) Dan Snyder
9) Dan Snyder
10) Dan Snyder

I think I would swap the last two places, but it is close! :)

Another thing about Stan Kroenke. He definitely has the worst toupee of any owner in professional sports.

Jeffrey Loria

Harold Ballard

I think an historical award needs to go to Ted Stepien, who was such a bad owner that the NBA made a rule to prohibit trading 1st round picks in consecutive years, informally known as the "Stepien Rule". He did such an awful job with the Cleveland Cavaliers that the other owners agreed to give additional draft picks to the Cavs if someone would buy them. Not many owners are so bad that a rule is named after them!

I really don't pay enough attention to what owners do. But to me, if an owner's priority is not winning, he's a poor owner. There might be other reasons too, I'm just not aware of them.

I notice a lot of people mentioning Dan Snyder. Care to elaborate? I'm asking because I truly don't know.

Isn't Dan Snyder the Redskins owner?

He passed away not long ago but Bill "Fatty" Bidwell of the Cardinals deserves mention. There's a reason the Cards have gone longer than any NFL team without winning a championship and it was him and his poor stewardship of the team. Bidwell managed to suck in three cities--Chicago, St. Louis, and Phoenix. Most owners only suck in one.

Historical, a few off the top o' me head:

Donald Sterling & Ted Stepien from the NBA...
Al Davis in his later years

Mike Brown still at Cincinnati?

Snyder is a despicable human being. Here is one article with several links to other pieces about his corruption.

https://deadspin.com/dan-snyders-sle...d-h-1832580679

If you are more into videos, this is amusing and vintage Snyder:

https://deadspin.com/the-time-dan-sn...nna-1833977080