Top Ten Craziest Sports Team Owners in History

There are many things that can make you a horrible team owner – negligence, naivete, greasiness, racial tendencies or even letting your dog poop on your field.

Whatever the case, we here at Top Bet have compiled a list of, not only some of the worst people on earth, but the Top Ten Worst Team Owners in the History of the World.

A big fan of lists are you? Perhaps you’ll like our Hottest Wives and Girlfriends of the SEC.

Top Ten Craziest Team Owners in the History of the World.

#10 – Michael Feterik (Calgary Stampeders – CFL Owner 2001 – 2005)

We’re sure other team owners have thought of it, but this guy actually made his son the starting quarterback of the team. It wasn’t that far-fetched. In fact, his son was the starter at BYU for years in the 90’s before heading to Calgary. Long story short though, the man that became rich owning a cardboard box factory never continued his success on the field. The team was brutal from 2002-2005.

The team actually won the Grey Cup in 2001 and to this day, Feterik swears that the papers were all signed and he was the official owner of the team at the time. “For winning the Grey Cup. I was officially owner when we won,” he said. “You can’t take that away from me. I’ve got the ring.”

Fair enough.

#9 – Marge Schott (Cincinnati Reds – MLB Owner 1984 – 1999)

Marge Schott didn’t start out as a train wreck of an owner in the 80’s, it’s a moniker that she kind of grew in to over time. One of her constant criticisms is that she’d constantly let her St. Bernard’s walk around Riverfront Stadium – the field the Reds used to call home. Not only that though, she’d let the dogs take constant dumps on the field. Whether she brought little baggies with her to pick it up afterward is unknown.

Schott would get in quite a bit of hot water again talking about Adolf Hitler saying, “[He] was good in the beginning, but went too far.”

Clearly this didn’t win over too many fans. Schott then imitated the Prime Minister of Japan’s accent and said she didn’t like Asian American kids. Facing yet another suspension from the MLB, she decided perhaps it was time to move on.

#8 – John Spano (New York Islanders – NHL Owner 1996 – 1997)

This guy is actually kind of funny. He swindled some of the best businessmen in America and became the Owner and CEO of the New York Islanders. Had there been internet at the time (a better form of the internet than AOL), this guy would’ve been dead in his tracks. However, seeing how the world was still stuck in a simpler time – simpler minds prevailed.

Spano told people he was worth far more than he was. He told people his small company of ten employees had grown to 10 companies world wide with 6,000 employees. He then started making faking checks and bank notes, similar to Leonardo Dicaprio’s character in Catch Me If You Can. Instead of wiring an owed $5 Million dollars, he wired $5,000. Then instead of wiring an owed $17 Million dollars, he wired $1,700. He claimed they were both accidents on the banks part.

The NHL would investigate and Spano went down. He’d later be charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and forgery. His ESPN 30 for 30 is, in our opinion, one of the best sports docs going.

#7 – Michael Heisley (Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies – NBA Owner 2000 – 2012)

If you look up “Greasy” in the dictionary, there’s likely a very nice photo of Michael Heisley. He came to the rescue of a Vancouver Grizzlies basketball franchise in need of some solid ownership. He was the white knight for the franchise right from the get-go! He saved the team from Bill Laurie and the Laurie family who planned on moving the club to St. Louis.

He made it clear his plan was to keep the Grizzlies in the thick of forests of Vancouver. He even sang the Canadian national anthem ‘Oh Canada’ at the team’s home opener (as pictured above). Heisley hired new staff and a had a golden plan for the team. Although his hesitance to spend money in the team’s final year was a little alarming. In any case, the inevitable happened. He moved the team to Memphis.

The once beloved league has never returned to the major Canadian city outside of a few exhibition games. The team was infamous for drafting Bryan ‘Big Country’ Reeves and Steve Francis – two colossal disasters. Perhaps the writing was on the wall before Heisley got there. In any case, while the team is now defunct, the old logo can be still found on hipsters hats around the globe.

#6 – Bill Wirtz (Chicago Blackhawks – NHL Owner 1970’s – 1997)

His successor and current owner of the Blackhawks is his son Rocky Wirtz. Rocky has been the biggest breath of fresh air to hit Chicago since…wait a second, there’s no fresh air in Chicago…never mind.

In any case, Bill wasn’t known as ‘The People’s Owner’ by any means. He would blackout home games because the team wasn’t selling a lot of tickets. He then made “Hawks Vision” – a Pay-Per-View service costing Hawks fans $29.95 per month to watch their losing team play in front of empty seats at the old Chicago Stadium from 1991-1993.

Wirtz was blamed for the loss of Phil Esposito, Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick and Denis Savard. Few called him loyal, many called him greedy. Everyone called him Bill Wirtz.

#5 – The Wilpons (New York Mets – MLB Owners 2002 – present)

They’re not the worst owners, they just not the brightest. You should know that your owners are a little crooked, if they’re good friends with Bernie Madoff. It was first reported in 2008, [sc:MLB240banner ]that the Wilpons lost $700 million dollars in the crooks’s ponzi scheme. It was then later reported that they actually made about $300 million.

This of course spurned a further investigation and a court case revealed that Wilpon utilized Madoff in running the Mets financial department (red flag). It became a regular thing to throw deferred money into player contracts and then use that dough to invest into Madoff’s garbage funds. That way the Wilpon’s could make dough, along with Madoff before they needed to pay the players their dough.

To this day, Madoff says Wilpon had nothing to do with the ponzi scheme.

#4 – Harry Frazee (Boston Red Sox – MLB Owner 1916 – 1923)

Harry is known around Boston for much more than his jowls; he’s the man that traded Babe Ruth. Yes, if your only baseball knowledge of legendary players came from watching The Sandlot, Babe Ruth was originally with the Boston Red Sox.

After taking over the team in 1916, the Sox won the World Series in 1918. That’s when everything went off the rails for the team. Frazee sold the Great Bambino to the New York Yankees along with a whack of other legendary players all for a total of $305,000 over five years. His intention was to put the money back into the team and buy better players, but his theater investments weren’t doing too well. Instead of having comedies on stage though, he turned the Sox into the laughing stock of the league. The team didn’t break the .500 mark till 1934 and didn’t win another pennant until 1946. They of course won their next series in 2004 to crack the curse that Frazee hit them with in the early 1900’s.

#3 – Charles Wang (New York Islanders – NHL Owner 2002 – present)

Typically when you know nothing about a company or sport, you don’t invest in it. None the less, Charles Wang defied the odds and decided one day that he’d own an NHL team. Seeing how the league figured just a few years earlier that John Spano would be a good fit for the Islanders, they figured how could lightning strike twice?

Well to their credit, he actually has money in the bank – so already he’s a better owner that Spano. None the less, Wang made his first big splash in New York by signing goaltender Rick Dipietro to an absolutely unheard of 15-year $67.5 million dollar contract extension! A few years prior, while minority owner, he okay’d Mike Milbury’s 10-year extension of Alexei Yashin. Two players who never amounted to their potential.

Dipietro was injured almost every season after he signed and in 2013 his contract was bought out. The man that prompted the team to trade Roberto Luongo, is now a radio host in New York. Meanwhile, the man the team traded Zdeno Chara to get, Alexei Yashin is the current general manager of the Russian National Women’s Hockey Team.

Almost forgot to mention…Wang also hired legendary New York Ranger GM and Stanley Cup winner Neil Smith as general manager in 2006 and fired him 40 days later. He’d then replace Smith as GM with the team’s backup goaltender Garth Snow. Need we say more?

#2 – Daniel Snyder (Washington Redskins – NFL Owner 1999 – present)

Let’s put the team’s constant losing record aside since Snyder took over the team. The team is called the Washington Redskins. This hasn’t always been a massive issue, but over the past ten years it’s hit the forefront. It is clearly a racial reference and the public backlash that Snyder has had to deal with has been endless.

Although numerous advocacy groups, individuals and politicians have voiced their disdain, Snyder hasn’t backed down. In 2013, he told USA Today, “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER—you can use caps.”

Aside from that, Snyder has turned the Redskins into a comedy of errors. A revolving door of head coaches, a revolving door of quarterbacks and a consistent trend of bad decision after bad decision. Albert Haynesworth, Mike Shanahan, Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb etc. The list goes on and on and sadly for Skins fans, Snyder’s reign will also continue to go on and on as well.

#1 – Donald Sterling (Los Angeles Clippers 1981 – 2014)

Donald Sterling was banned by the NBA and forced to sell the Clippers in 2014 after leaving racist remarks on his gold digging loving girlfriend’s answering machine.

To help prove to you why he’s our #1 crazy, here you go…

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