I just got done reading an article by Jonah Keri of ESPN.com about the worst owners in sports. Using wiki, I looked up some the track records of some of the ones I found particularly appalling:

Bill Wirtz, Chicago Blackhawks. He was worth about $4 billion, but was known as one of the cheapest owners in sports. "He was vilified by Blackhawks fans for forbidding Blackhawks home games to be shown on TV unless they were picked up by national broadcasters, which only happened when the Blackhawks made the playoffs. As he explained it, he felt that broadcasting regular home games was unfair to season-ticket holders.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-st001_0>[4]</SUP> For a short time during the 1992 and 1993 seasons, Wirtz introduced Hawkvision, a pay-per-view service that operated in conjunction with Chicago's local SportsChannel outfit, which cost $29.95 per month and broadcast Blackhawks home games."

So, he refused to show the games on television, and then tried to get fans to pay 30 bucks a month to watch. WTF?

Here's how the fans felt about him:

"Wirtz died at Evanston Hospital on September 26, 2007, following a brief battle with cancer. During a tribute and moment of silence for him during the Blackhawks home opener on October 8, 2007, the Chicago crowd displayed their displeasure with Wirtz's operation of the organization by booing the proceedings."

wow

Next comes Calvin Griffith, former owner of the Minnesota Twins. I'll let this quote of his speak for itself, talking about why he moved the Senators from Washington DC to Minnesota: I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."

His successor hasnt been that much better. "Carl Pohlad started his banking fortune, now valued at $2.6 billion, by foreclosing on the land of Minnesota farmers during the Great Depression. When his buddy Bud Selig suggested Major League Baseball contract two teams, Pohlad offered the Twins up for slaughter."

Former Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring sounds like a real class act.

"A 1999 story in Seattle Weekly reported that "Behring...settled several sex harassment claims in recent years."<SUP class=reference id=_ref-seattleweekly-1999-06-16_0>[24]</SUP> The most prominent of these cases was the 1996 allegation by former employee Patricia Parker that she had been sexually harassed over the course of two years, and assaulted at a New Year's Day event.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-seattleweekly-1999-06-16_1>[24]</SUP><SUP class=reference id=_ref-usatoday-1999-03-01_0>[25]</SUP> The New York Times reported that Parker "accused Behring of making advances, asking her to pick up his prescription sex-enhancing drugs and requiring she keep waivers on hand for his potential sex partners to sign away their rights to demand money of him."<SUP class=reference id=_ref-nytimes-1996-08-14_0>[26]</SUP> Behring denied the charges,<SUP class=reference id=_ref-usatoday-1999-03-01_1>[25]</SUP> and the case was settled out of court in 1996"

He's also an avid hunter...

"In 1997, Behring shot an endangered KaraTau argali sheep in Kazakhstan (only 100 remained in the world at the time); the animal could not be legally imported into the United States.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-endangered-species-handbook_1>[27]</SUP> He donated $20 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History six weeks later, offering his private collection of stuffed hunting trophies to the museum, including four rare bighorn sheep, one of which was the KaraTau argali sheep.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-abcnews_0>[30]</SUP> The Smithsonian attempted to import the remains by petitioning the Department of the Interior for an Endangered Species Act waiver, but withdrew its request after questioning and negative publicity from Representative George Miller and groups like the Humane Society of the United States.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-usatoday-2000-02-03_1>[17]</SUP><SUP class=reference id=_ref-hsus_0>[31]</SUP> Behring maintained that he had broken no laws, and had shot the animal legally while assisting Kazakh scientists.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-archealogy_1>[29]</SUP><SUP class=reference id=_ref-nytimes-1999-03-17_0>[32]</SUP>
In 1998, Behring shot and killed an elephant in Mozambique, where the sport killing of elephants was banned in 1990. His hunting companions killed two more elephants. Local investigators reported that the group used a helicopter during the hunt, which "drove the elephants onto their guns" -- a charge they denied."

Clippers owner Donals Sterling is another winner:

"On November 15, 2005, the Associated Press reported that Sterling had been ordered by U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher to pay $5 million in fees to plaintiff's attorneys in a case accusing him of trying to drive out non-Korean tenants, particularly blacks and Latinos, at apartments he owned in Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-2>[3]</SUP>
August 8, 2006- The U.S. Department of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination, claiming he refused to rent apartments to blacks and families with children.
Sterling also made headlines during a trial in which he admitted to paying a Beverly Hills woman named Alexandra Castro for sexual favors, these favors included oral sex, in many building, offices and even limos that Sterling owned.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-3>[4]"</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
<SUP>This is just low:</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
"After years of attempting to relocate the team, Tom Benson tried to use Hurricane Katrina as a final excuse to move the team. Class act."

This takes cheapness to a new level:

"Citing overspending on bottled water, 49ers owner John York had all of the bottled water in team facilities locked in an equipment cage. He demolished a room previously devoted to local media during media-heavy days. They were moved out into a temporary trailer on team facilities that York chose not to include heating or air conditioning due to its infrequency of use for a short time"

Here's former Toronto Maple LEafs owner Harold Ballard:

" While touring Europe, the Nationals were involved in several fights, both on the ice and off. In one incident, Ballard was arrested in Paris following a fracas at a hotel.

To make room for more seats, Ballard removed a large portrait of Queen Elizabeth II from the Gardens. When asked about it, Ballard replied "She doesn't pay me, I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a queen play?"
<SUP></SUP>
On the hot summer day of the concert, Ballard ordered the building's heat turned up, and the water fountains around the arena mysteriously stopped functioning. He also delayed both of the concerts for over an hour. The only available refreshments from the terrible heat were large soft drinks from the concession stands. (wow...that is pathetic...)

In 1969, Ballard and Stafford Smythe were charged with tax evasion and accused of using Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to pay for their personal expenses.

An apocryphal tale suggests that Ballard convinced a drunk Smythe to alter his will to sell his ownership stake to Ballard.

Shortly after taking control of the Leafs, Ballard stood trial on 28 counts of fraud involving $82,000, 21 counts of theft involving $123,000, and tax evasion. He was accused by the Crown attorney of using funds from Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to pay for renovations to his home and cottage, to rent limousines for his daughter's wedding in 1967, and to buy motorcycles for his sons (passing off the expense as hockey equipment for the Marlboros), as well as placing money belonging to the corporation into a private bank account that he controlled along with Stafford Smythe. Ballard pleaded not guilty to all charges. he was sentenced to nine years in a federal penitentiary. After a brief stay at Kingston Penitentiary, he was moved to a minimum-security facility that was part of Millhaven Institution. During a three-day pass, he told reporters that inmates at Millhaven received steak dinners every day--sparking nationwide outrage and a debate in Parliament. He finished his sentence at a half-way house in Toronto, and was paroled in October 1973 after serving a third of his sentence.

The storied arena fell into disrepair during Ballard's tenure. For example, when the roof leaked, he did little more than order plastic sheets to catch the rainwater.
Other notable incidents and anecdotes during Ballard's time as majority owner of Maple Leaf Gardens:

• In August 1979, to make room for private boxes, he had Foster Hewitt's historic broadcast gondola dumped into an incinerator. This was in spite of appeals from the Hockey Hall of Fame, who wished to acquire it. This happened about a year after Ballard had taken the radio broadcast rights to Leaf games away from Hewitt's CKFH (AM) and sold them to CKO. Hewitt unsuccessfully appealed the deal to the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission.
• Demanding $15,000 a game from the WHA's Toronto Toros to play in the Gardens, and then informing them (after they signed the contract) it would cost an extra $3,500 per game to use the TV lights. He also removed the bench cushions for Toros games and forced the team to build its own dressing room, at a cost of $55,000. These outrageous terms forced the Toros to move to Birmingham, Alabama.
• When the NHL decided to put surnames on sweaters, Ballard refused, citing program sales. After being forced to put names on the jerseys, he did, by putting blue names on blue jerseys and white names on white, making them unreadable. Later threatened with a fine, he backed down and put the names in the opposite colors.
• Angered (or maybe jealous) by Conn Smythe's success with the club and his inability to bring a Cup to Toronto under his sole ownership, Ballard sold all of the Cup banners that had hung from the rafters of Maple Leafs Gardens for years. Ballard had managed to get his name on the Cup four times while part-owner of the team. When the Leafs moved to the Air Canada Centre in 1999, the NHL presented the team with new banners to replace those Ballard had sold.
• Early in his tenure, Ballard had imprints of his hands and feet placed in concrete with brass lettering beneath centre ice, which severely vitiated the quality of the Gardens ice.

Once when he discovered that the son of his estranged daughter was to play in a kids hockey tournament in the Gardens, Ballard had the entire tournament cancelled. After he died in April 1990, it was discovered he had been stealing game equipment for many years and selling it to collectors.

In April 2003, a woman publicly identified only as R.M. filed suit against Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., claiming that Ballard had sexually abused her over a period of eight years. The abuse was said to have started in 1963 when she was 10 years old, and to have continued until she was 18. Her uncle had been a painter at the Gardens, and R.M. said she didn't come forward sooner because Ballard had threatened to fire him if she had. She sought damages of $2 million. The suit was settled in March 2006 for an undisclosed amount"

---