A MIXED BAG
The best and worst of NY’s team owners
EVERY aggrieved sports fan has the same blueprint: Just get me a new owner, any new owner, and things are going to get better. They have to get better. Of course, they don’t always get better, but that doesn’t mean fans stop trying, or yearning.
Mets fans have wanted new owners for years. This week, they got one. A good proportion of Mets fans are also Jets fans, so it feels as if in a lot of hearts and minds, it’s the Johnson brothers who are now on the clock. And a lot of Jets/Mets fans also root for the Knicks, so …
We have nine teams, so we have nine examples of what ownership shifts can mean, for the good and for the bad. Almost all of them have experienced both ends of the spectrum. Let’s take a look at them.
METS: The Wilpons became personas non grata across the past 15 years or so, and by themselves they were perfect examples of how, if you stick around long enough, you can spend time on both ends of the spectrum. When Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday bought the team from the family of original owner Joan Payson — who’d been a fine steward — they bought a wickedly depressed franchise, built it to greatness. Then, when the partnership dissolved in 2002, things slowly eroded. Though at $2.4 billion — not that much.
YANKEES: The original inspired ownership shift happened in 1915 when Cols. Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston bought the team from Frank Ferrell and William Devery, eventually imported Babe Ruth, eventually built Yankee Stadium and … well, you know. The Del Webb/Dan Topping partnership that followed helped fortify the dynasty, and it wasn’t until CBS came in and bought the team in 1964 that the slide toward mediocrity began. So though George Steinbrenner spent plenty of his years angering his fans, he was the most important figure in resurrecting the franchise’s past standing.
GIANTS: It’s pretty simple: The $500 Tim Mara plunked down in 1925 to buy the football Giants remains the smartest purchase of any team in any league ever. The family’s relationship with fans has, out of time and familiarity, been hotand-cold (as beloved as Wellington was late in life, he was reviled for many years in the ’60s and ’70s, to a degree even the unpopular turn his son, John, has lately experienced hasn’t come close). Adding the Tisch family as an equal partner 30 years ago was another inspired stroke.
JETS: It’s kind of funny to see how much Jets fans have grown to revile the Johnson brothers because it allows an amnesia about just how disliked Leon Hess was. Hess, remember, was the one who forced Sonny Werblin out back in the day and oversaw a mostly miserable era in Jets history — and also was responsible for the Jets abandoning New York City for North Jersey in 1983. In some ways, it’s amazing the Jets have been able to keep the doors open as long as they have.
KNICKS/RANGERS: The dichotomy between James Dolan, detested Knicks owner, and James Dolan, beloved Rangers owner, is only the latest example of a remarkably unique situation with the Garden and its prime tenants, one that has survived any number of corporate bundlings (and bunglings) from Gulf and Western on.
NETS: It’s perfect that the Nets have had a one-man sublime/ridiculous showcase (Roy Boe), because this is a team that has enjoyed and endured its share of ownership follies, from the Secaucus Seven to Lewis Katz to Mikhail Prokhorov. New owner Joseph Tsai does seem to be more in line with the brief but highly competent YankeeNets days of the early 2000s (not surprisingly, a time overseen by Lou Lamoriello).
ISLANDERS: Boe, of course was a part of this franchise at the start. And though its greatest glories came under the watch of John O. Pickett, it would seem that the present ownership led by Jon Ledecky may well be the model for all other ownerships in New York and elsewhere, a so-far note-perfect run that has done wonders in finally dissolving the memory of John Spano, who was the worst owner in the history of New York sports.
DEVILS: All hail to John McMullen, who not only brought the team to town from Denver but also came up with one of the great sports quotes of all time: “There is nothing more limiting than being a limited partner for George Steinbrenner.” Though Jeff Vanderbeek’s time included some financial peril, the present owners, David Blitzer and Josh Harris, have proven to be savvy owners (who very nearly added the Mets to their stash of teams).