For some reason, Oakland became home to sport’s most miserable owners. A collection of shysters, frauds and crumb bums who could have cared less about the city and fans. While these failures were all drawn to the robust Northern California media market, none were bothered to invest, cultivate or build the roots required to be successful.
Instead, this trio couldn’t stop stepping on their own dicks. Whether it was making one dumb ass decision after another, purposely doing things fans hated or not having any money, Oakland was powerless as sport’s most miserable owners took advantage of their support.
How does this even happen? How does one region attract such an astounding collection of incompetent owners? Before we can answer that question, it’s necessary to learn a little bit more about these characters.
Al Davis and family
Al Davis, his son Mark and the rest of the clan are nothing but grifters who go from town to town in search of marks. His entire life was built upon telling lies in hopes of getting something he wanted whether it be coaching jobs or a new stadium. In his biography of the late Raiders owner, author Mark Ribowsky noted Davis violated NCAA recruiting rules, lied about being the brains behind the Los Angeles Chargers offense and did many other underhanded things to move up the football career ladder.
Hell, dude wasn’t even really the owner of the Raiders for most of his life. Davis didn’t obtain a majority interest in the franchise in 2005. But he was more than happy to claim that he was the owner while forcing other stakeholders to go along with his wishes. The con man’s only focus in life was getting what he wanted–a trait passed on to his son.
It is why the franchise moved from Oakland to Los Angeles to Oakland to Las Vegas while flirting with countless other towns in between. In a couple of decades, Mark Davis will start complaining about Sin City and angle for the team’s next relocation.
The Davis’ do nothing but use people and places as means to an end. This is a shame because both Oakland and Los Angeles loved and still love the Raiders. However, that was irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was ol’ Leatherface getting what he wanted. And when he didn’t, all hell broke loose.
It is why Oakland Coliseum was burdened with Mount Davis despite it making the stadium much worse for baseball. And what did the city get as thanks for these efforts? Years later, the family uprooted the team to Las Vegas after making no real attempts to stay. Sorry, that Coliseum City deal being financed by the “Prince of Dubai” was about as genuine as those $20 NFL jerseys being sold on Wish.
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Chris Cohan
There was a 15-year stretch when Chris Cohan and Donald Sterling seemed to be locked in a battle to see who was the worst NBA owner. These two were truly awful on so many different levels. But let’s focus on the man who oversaw the Golden State Warriors between 1994 and 2010.
The year prior to assuming ownership Golden State won 50 games and made the playoffs. They would only qualify for the postseason once under Cohan’s stewardship. What was he doing during this time?
Mostly cycling through the most incompetent and lazy general managers and coaches imaginable. That, of course, was when Cohan wasn’t overruling them to make his own poor decisions.
There was the hire of Garry St. Jean as general manager for reasons no one understood. St. Jean had a dreadful stint as Sacramento Kings head coach and was out of the NBA for two seasons before landing this role. An upturned mop with a bucket on its head would have been a better-qualified candidate.
Don’t believe me? Here are some of St. Jean’s greatest hits. He drafted Adonal Foyle; traded Vince Carter for Antawn Jamison and cash; traded the 10th pick in the 1999 NBA draft for the 21st pick and a 32-year-old Mookie Blaylock; hired and fired Dave Cowens as head coach; and hired Eric Musselman as head coach.
Things didn’t get much better when St. Jean was finally let go. There was the ridiculous tenure of Mike Montgomery as head coach. Even the random success of the ‘We Believe’ side was followed up by more disarray. Don Nelson went on an extended senior spring after that season while Stephen Jackson cashed in with a superfluous contract extension that Cohan personally gave him.
But perhaps best of all was when Cohan was dragged to court by the IRS over an unpaid tax bill of $160 million in 2007. He ended up paying over $200 million in taxes, penalties and interest when everything was said and done.
While embarrassing, this would lead to him selling the franchise in 2010. That story had a happy ending.
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John Fisher
Lew Wolff was not a great or even good sports owner. But he at least showed some level of compassion for the Northern California market, albeit it usually involved him making money from his property development business. He did bring the Earthquakes back and get them a new stadium with no public financing.
You have to believe had he not sold his stake in the Oakland A’s to John Fisher in 2016 that one of the team’s numerous stadium plans would have gotten off the ground. There was early optimism when Wolff did sell that the team would spend more across the board.
What were we thinking? John Joseph Fisher has proven to be an incompetent, bumbling liar who pinches pennies tighter than Wolff. Name one thing Fisher has done successfully in his entire life. While I wait for you to come up with something, here’s some of the awful stuff he’s done.
Fisher has spent an ungodly amount of money on conservative candidates and causes over the years almost all of which would benefit him, an alleged billionaire who is only rich because of his parents dying. The bald douche is also a massive supporter of charter schools, one of America’s biggest scams.
On the field, Fisher purposely made the team bad so he can play the victim and claim fans don’t care about the A’s. One important difference between Davis and Cohan and Fisher is intent.
When the Raiders were terrible, it was due to Davis’ hubris in thinking everyone would be cool with his hair-brained schemes while also playing NFL general manager. Chris Cohan was simply an incompetent bum who didn’t know what he was doing.
Fisher acts with malice. He has made the A’s bad and let the Coliseum deteriorate out of spite. His goal is to simply stick it to Oakland officials because they didn’t give him everything he wanted even though the Gap heir made no effort to meet them in the middle.
Were you able to figure out something Fisher has done successfully in his life? No? Okay, let’s move on.
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How Oakland became home of sport’s most miserable owners
In order to understand how Oakland became home to sport’s most miserable owners, you must also go back to how each franchise started off in the market. The Raiders were there first as an AFL side. The Seals showed up in 1967 but Northern California wasn’t quite ready for hockey, and they moved on a decade later.
The A’s moved to Oakland in 1968 while the Warriors would turn up in 1971 after years of traveling the Bay Area. Each case is different, so let’s start with Davis since he was the first.
Davis thought he was smarter than he actually was. However, if you wanted to be in the Raiders business, you had to put up with this. Oakland was far from the only entity to deal with his antics over the years. Why he was allowed to do this despite not being a majority owner is a good question and one that doesn’t seem to make much sense. But he’s hardly the first con man to get away with shady dealings.
The Golden State Warriors were bought by Franklin Mieuli in 1961 who moved the team to San Francisco from Philadelphia. He was part of a really large ownership group that had good intentions but not the finances or planning skills to make the franchise successful over the long haul.
Former Milwaukee Bucks owner Jim Fitzgerald and a partner purchased the franchise in 1986 and were a safe pair of hands. However, they had no connections to the Bay Area and sold to Cohan nearly a decade later. Despite having grown up in California, he was not fit for the position.
Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s suffered a lot of misfortune regarding owners. Charles O. Finley was forced to sell the team in 1980 due to a divorce. Walter A. Haas was an outstanding locally-based owner but his death in 1995 led to the team being sold to Stephen C. Schott and Ken Hofmann.
They hung around long enough to usher in the Moneyball era but would offload the Athletics to Lew Wolff in 2005. He would then give up his interest in the team when John Fisher wanted to take over as the controlling partner 11 years later.
Ultimately, Oakland became home to sport’s most miserable owners because it was unlucky more than anything else. Al Davis swindled his way into control of the Raiders, Cohan just happened to be flush with cash when the Warriors were on the market, and Haas’ passing saw the A’s fall into the hands of a series owners who didn’t have the money or vision needed to compete.
People blame Oakland for teams leaving when, in reality, the city has been burdened with a collection of awful owners who weren’t able to tap into all the advantages Northern California offers. Fans have had no recourse or ability to change the situation. And in most cases, they stuck it out through these awful ownership groups. Jeering Oakland and Northern California is ridiculous. They should be celebrated for putting up with so much crap over the years.
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