Atop the ladder of every professional sports franchise, a giant wallet is pulling all the strings. All of the team operations rely on the decisions of its owner. As with anything in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to run a sports franchise. Furthermore, it is generally easy to tell which owners are conducting their business in the right way and which ones are not.
The prevailing trend among sports franchises has been a shift away from having a majority of the team's ownership lay in the hands of one person or family. Bad decisions made by that one person at the top have the capacity to ripple throughout the organization and even affect the fans. For proof that a one-man show does not work, look no further than the case of the New York Mets. In 2002, Fred Wilpon, who had owned a 50-percent stake in the Mets since 1986, bought the remaining half of the organization and made the Mets one of the few teams left in the sports world to be owned by a single person.
Let's look at how successful the Mets have been since this deal was made. When Wilpon became the principal owner in 2002, the Mets had played in the World Series just two years earlier. Since then, they have made the playoffs once, finished in fourth place in the division multiple times and in 2007 clinched a spot in history with the biggest late-season collapse the sports world had ever seen. Although it is hard to tell what would have come of the Mets in the 2000s had Wilpon not purchased the entire team, it is worth comparing the Mets to a very successful organization which operates just a few miles away. Shockingly, the Steinbrenner family owns only 33 percent of baseball's most historic and well-known franchise, the New York Yankees, and they are certainly doing things right in the Bronx.
What has Fred Wilpon done as the sole owner of the Mets? Wilpon has hired a slew of ineffective and uninspiring coaches and managers. The 2011 payroll will hover around $150 million, with roughly $25 million owed to the aging Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo and another $12 million owed to Oliver Perez, who undoubtedly has been the worst player in baseball during the last two years.\nThat being said, Wilpon recently announced he is looking to sell a minority stake in the team. Wilpon is making this move not because he has seen the errors of his ways, but because the U.S. legal system has. Without any checks on the owner, the Mets used profits from the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme to support team operations. The trustee charged with compensating Madoff's victims can seek up to $1 billion for Wilpon's business with Madoff. What exactly the Mets front office did with Madoff is still not totally clear, but I will give my understanding of it. When negotiating contracts with players, Wilpon would suggest that some of the money in the contract be invested with Madoff. Players would then be paid back with interest, but any additional profits would head right for Wilpon's pockets. If a multi-owner system is in fact the best way to run a sports organization, then this fiasco could be a blessing in disguise for the Mets and their fans - provided that Wilpon actually cedes some of the Mets ownership to what would be unquestionably more qualified hands.
Although the Mets' modus operandi is interesting in a sick and twisted way for fans like me, an even more compelling model belongs to this year's Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers. Since 1923, the Packers have been a publicly owned, non-profit organization. Today, more than 112,000 shareholders own a stake in the company, and all dividends are funneled back into the team. Tickets and concession prices remain among the lowest in the league, while profits from concessions are all donated to charity. This is the perfect franchise to support. The Packers have history, championships and owners who are not in the game to make a quick million or two. More ownership models like this would surely prevent the potential work stoppage that could occur during the 2011 NFL season. Since the Packers do not have owners who are selfish and greedy like most big-time businessmen, their plans for generating revenue do not include increased prices. Instead, restaurants, stores and a Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame all recently have been established outside Lambeau Field. These efforts certainly work, as the Packers remain one of the most popular franchises and of course win a championship from time to time.
Owning a sports franchise is like owning any business. It takes the combined forces of experimentation, entrepreneurship and luck. When the owners get it right, they aren't the only ones who reap the benefits. While the owners make bank, the team's fans have the privilege of supporting a team worth rooting for and the players get all of the glory. When a team fails to succeed on the field or court, however, the owners still make bank, but the fans are forced to wallow in self-pity and sometimes even show up to games with paper bags over their heads.
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