5 Most Famous Sports Team Owners
December 1st, 2009 | 
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While athletes and coaches may draw much of the focus in team sports, the team owners oversee everything. These challenging jobs mean taking care of coaches, players, and ticket sales alike to keep a sports team profitable. Here are the 5 most famous sports team owners.
Robert Kraft
Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots of the National Football League. He bought the team back in 1994 for a staggering $172 million. This team, like many, has had a checkered past.
It was faced with waning ticket sales. This was in large part due to some losing seasons which is never a good thing for a sports team. Interest was falling away until Robert Kraft took over and turned the New England Patriots into one of the more valuable franchises in the sports world.
Jerry Jones
Jerry Jones founded his fortune on natural gas and bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for $158 million. At that time the Dallas Cowboys were no prize but players like Troy Aikman and Emmit Smith helped to put them on the map. The team went on to win three Superbowls.
He even helped pay for the construction of the Cowboys Stadium by selling off some of his own real estate holdings. Exactly how much of his vast real estate holdings did he part with to help in this particular venture? The end total was about $300 million worth. That shows dedication to the team.
Michael Ilitch
Michael Ilitch was a minor league player who became injured and had to leave behind his dreams of playing professional baseball. He built up his fortune through his rewarding Little Caesars pizza chain and ended up using much of his fortune to start buying up his local hometown sports teams. He began with the Detroit Red Wings in 1982 for $8 million. He then moved on to buy the Detroit Tigers in 1992 for $82 million. Clearly, these teams have turned into profitable enterprises and are both big names in their respective sports.
Charles Dolan
Charles Dolan is the owner of the New York Nicks. Despite some problematic seasons, this team continues to be a valuable franchise. Everyone knows the New York Nicks and all of its players are very well compensated for their involvement with the team.
Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich made much of his money in oil and used a portion of his massive holdings to buy the U.K. soccer Chelsea team. This team’s worth has gone up considerably since he made the purchase in 2003 and did so without building a new stadium and without any big championship wins. Once mired in debt, this team was turned around under Roman Abramovich’s ownership to become an extremely valuable enterprise.
The 5 most famous sports team owners make the list because of the things they have done. People may focus on team owners who make the news for good or bad reasons. In the end, sports team owners make it possible for sports to be all that they are.
Tom Rheinecker writes about which schools offer the best sports management degrees.
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