The Owners Who Lost Their Teams
Published on August 27th, 2026Written By: Dave Manuel
In November 1943 the commissioner of baseball banned the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies for life. William D. Cox had bought the club eight months earlier and had bet on his own team, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis removed him permanently and without much ceremony. In the eighty-three years since, professional sport has produced owners who defrauded banks of hundreds of millions, who paid gamblers to dig up dirt on their own players, who gambled away the franchise at a blackjack table, who were recorded saying things that ended their careers within seventy-two hours, and who presided over workplaces that took independent investigators years to document. Almost none of them were banned. Most were fined, some were suspended, a few lost day-to-day control - and the ones who were finally forced out sold their teams for sums that made the punishment the most profitable event of their lives. This file sets eleven of them against the same five-rung scale, and the pattern that emerges is not the one the leagues would choose.
Sports-King Feature
Banned, Fined, Forced Out
Eighty-three years of ownership scandals, measured on one scale. What each man did, what it actually cost him, and why the harshest penalty in modern sport is a nine-figure cheque.
Years Covered83
Banned For Life2
Ended in a Sale8
Largest Forced Sale$6B
Every entry below is measured against the same ladder, from a fine at the top to a lifetime ban at the bottom. Where a rung is coloured, that sanction was actually imposed. Where it is greyed, it was not. The ladder deliberately does not include prison, because a commissioner cannot impose one and in two of these cases the courts got there first. Read the eleven in order and watch how rarely anyone reaches the bottom - and what happens to the people who stop one rung short.
01
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced sale-
Banned for lifeNOVEMBER 1943
WHAT HAPPENED BET ON HIS OWN TEAM
RULED BY .... COMMISSIONER LANDIS
TIME AS OWNER ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS
OUTCOME ..... BANNED FOR LIFE, FORCED OUTThe first owner ever banned, and still one of only a handful to reach the bottom rung.
RULED BY .... COMMISSIONER LANDIS
TIME AS OWNER ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS
OUTCOME ..... BANNED FOR LIFE, FORCED OUTThe first owner ever banned, and still one of only a handful to reach the bottom rung.
The very first entry goes straight to the bottom of the scale, which tells you something about how baseball viewed gambling in the years after the Black Sox. William D. Cox bought the Philadelphia Phillies in March 1943 and was gone by November, banned for life by Kenesaw Mountain Landis for betting on his own club. He argued the wagers were small and sentimental. It made no difference. Eight months as an owner, and a permanent expulsion - a punishment the sport has almost never handed to an owner since, no matter what else they did.
02
A fine-
A suspensionTWICE
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced sale-
Banned for life-
1974 ....... ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
PLEA ....... GUILTY, CONSPIRACY
SANCTION ... TWO YEARS, SERVED FIFTEEN MONTHS
1990 ....... $40,000 TO A GAMBLER
PURPOSE .... DIRT ON HIS OWN OUTFIELDER
SANCTION ... INDEFINITE, REINSTATED 1993
PLEA ....... GUILTY, CONSPIRACY
SANCTION ... TWO YEARS, SERVED FIFTEEN MONTHS
1990 ....... $40,000 TO A GAMBLER
PURPOSE .... DIRT ON HIS OWN OUTFIELDER
SANCTION ... INDEFINITE, REINSTATED 1993
Steinbrenner is the only man on this list to be suspended twice and keep his team both times. In 1974 he pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign and was suspended for two years by Bowie Kuhn, serving fifteen months. In 1990 he agreed to an indefinite suspension after paying a gambler named Howard Spira $40,000 to find damaging information about Dave Winfield - a player on his own payroll. Spira later went to prison for extorting him. Steinbrenner was reinstated in March 1993, and the Yankees then won four World Series in five years. The knock-on effect was not deterrence. It was a demonstration that a suspension is survivable.
03
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced saleTO CLEAR DEBTS
Banned for life-
WHAT HAPPENED CASINO LOSSES AT BLACKJACK
REPORTED DEBT MORE THAN $25 MILLION
LEAGUE ACTION NONE REQUIRED
OUTCOME ..... SOLD THE FRANCHISE TO PAY UPNo commissioner had to act. The debts did the work.
REPORTED DEBT MORE THAN $25 MILLION
LEAGUE ACTION NONE REQUIRED
OUTCOME ..... SOLD THE FRANCHISE TO PAY UPNo commissioner had to act. The debts did the work.
Not every owner is removed by a league. Some are removed by arithmetic. Leonard Tose lost a fortune at Atlantic City blackjack tables - by widely reported accounts more than $25 million - and had to sell the Eagles in 1985 to settle with the casinos. There was no investigation and no ruling, because none was needed. For an article on a betting site the case is worth stating plainly rather than winking at: the man who owned a professional football team gambled it away, at a game with a fixed and knowable house edge, over a period of years.
04
A fine$25,000
A suspensionONE YEAR, 1993
Loss of day-to-day controlFROM 1996
A forced saleOCTOBER 1999
Banned for life-
WHAT HAPPENED REPEATED RACIAL AND ETHNIC SLURS
ALSO ...... PUBLIC REMARKS PRAISING HITLER
1993 ...... ONE YEAR PLUS $25,000, CUT TO EIGHT MONTHS
ORDERED ... INTO MULTICULTURAL TRAINING
1996 ...... GAVE UP DAY-TO-DAY CONTROL
1999 ...... SOLD CONTROLLING INTEREST
ALSO ...... PUBLIC REMARKS PRAISING HITLER
1993 ...... ONE YEAR PLUS $25,000, CUT TO EIGHT MONTHS
ORDERED ... INTO MULTICULTURAL TRAINING
1996 ...... GAVE UP DAY-TO-DAY CONTROL
1999 ...... SOLD CONTROLLING INTEREST
Schott is the clearest illustration of how leagues actually remove people: slowly, through escalating pressure, without ever using the word expulsion. In 1993 MLB's executive council suspended her for a year and fined her $25,000 for conduct it said brought disrepute and embarrassment to the sport, reduced to eight months for good behaviour and paired with an order to complete multicultural training. It did not take. By 1996 she was pressured into surrendering day-to-day control through 1998, and in October 1999 she sold her controlling interest. Six years from first sanction to exit, and she climbed four rungs of the ladder one at a time.
05
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced saleAFTER CONVICTION
Banned for life-
WHAT HAPPENED BANK FRAUD
SCALE ..... ABOUT $236 MILLION
SENTENCE .. 70 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON
THE TEAM .. SOLD, THEN BANKRUPTCYNote that the ladder does not capture prison. Leagues and courts are separate systems.
SCALE ..... ABOUT $236 MILLION
SENTENCE .. 70 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON
THE TEAM .. SOLD, THEN BANKRUPTCYNote that the ladder does not capture prison. Leagues and courts are separate systems.
McNall brought Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles in 1988 and is credited with launching hockey as a commercial proposition in the American sun belt. He was also defrauding banks of roughly $236 million, and in 1994 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seventy months in federal prison. The relevant point for this file is the one the ladder cannot show: the criminal justice system moved first, and the league simply absorbed the consequences. There is no rung for a prison sentence, because a commissioner has no power to impose one and no need to.
06
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced saleDEAL UNWOUND
Banned for life-
AGREED PRICE $165 MILLION, OCTOBER 1996
CLAIMED WORTH $230 MILLION
ACTUAL WORTH ABOUT $5 MILLION
THE MOMENT .. WIRED $1,700 INSTEAD OF $17 MILLION
IN CONTROL .. ROUGHLY THREE MONTHS
RELINQUISHED JULY 11, 1997The scandal that explains why every league now vets buyers to the degree it does.
CLAIMED WORTH $230 MILLION
ACTUAL WORTH ABOUT $5 MILLION
THE MOMENT .. WIRED $1,700 INSTEAD OF $17 MILLION
IN CONTROL .. ROUGHLY THREE MONTHS
RELINQUISHED JULY 11, 1997The scandal that explains why every league now vets buyers to the degree it does.
Spano is the outlier: an owner whose scandal was the purchase itself. In October 1996 he agreed to buy the Islanders from John Pickett for $165 million on the strength of a claimed fortune of $230 million. He was worth closer to $5 million. He took control in early 1997 and held it for roughly three months before the arithmetic caught him: a payment of $16.8 million bounced, and his attempt to make good on it arrived as a wire for $1,700. Gary Bettman forced him to hand back day-to-day operations, he relinquished control on July 11, 1997, and he later pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Of every case here, this one had the most direct institutional consequence. Modern ownership vetting - the proof of funds, the personal financial disclosure, the background checks - exists in significant part because of how easily this happened. Every buyer approved since has been made to prove they are not him.
07
A fine$1 MILLION
A suspensionONE YEAR
Loss of day-to-day controlPERMANENT
A forced sale-
Banned for life-
WHAT HAPPENED FAILED TO REPORT AN EXTORTION DEMAND
CONTEXT ... A LOUISIANA RIVERBOAT CASINO LICENCE
PLEA ...... GUILTY, FELONY NON-REPORTING
NFL ....... $1M FINE, ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION
OUTCOME ... HANDED CONTROL TO HIS SISTER
LATER ..... HALL OF FAME 2016, PARDONED 2020
CONTEXT ... A LOUISIANA RIVERBOAT CASINO LICENCE
PLEA ...... GUILTY, FELONY NON-REPORTING
NFL ....... $1M FINE, ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION
OUTCOME ... HANDED CONTROL TO HIS SISTER
LATER ..... HALL OF FAME 2016, PARDONED 2020
DeBartolo won five Super Bowls and is remembered fondly by almost everyone who played for him, which makes his case the strangest on the ladder. In 1998 he pleaded guilty to failing to report an extortion demand from the former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, connected to a riverboat casino licence. The NFL fined him $1 million and suspended him for a year - two rungs - but the third happened privately: he handed control of the 49ers to his sister Denise DeBartolo York and never returned to the franchise. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016 and pardoned in 2020. The sanction was temporary. The loss of the team was permanent.
08
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day controlSEIZED 2011
A forced saleCOMPLETED 2012
Banned for life-
WHAT HAPPENED FINANCES COLLAPSED AMID A DIVORCE
LEAGUE ACTION MLB TOOK OVER THE CLUB
THEN ...... BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS
SOLD FOR .. $2.15 BILLION IN 2012
BUYER ..... A GROUP LED BY MARK WALTERRemember this buyer. He returns as the last entry in this file.
LEAGUE ACTION MLB TOOK OVER THE CLUB
THEN ...... BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS
SOLD FOR .. $2.15 BILLION IN 2012
BUYER ..... A GROUP LED BY MARK WALTERRemember this buyer. He returns as the last entry in this file.
This is the case that proves a league can simply take a franchise away from a solvent-looking billionaire. As the McCourts' divorce exposed how thinly the Dodgers were financed, Major League Baseball seized control of the club in 2011, and the dispute ran into bankruptcy court before ending in a forced sale. The price, $2.15 billion in 2012, was then a record for any sports franchise, and it worked out extraordinarily well for the seller - McCourt had bought in for a fraction of it. The buyer was a group led by Mark Walter, and that fact is why this article ends where it does.
09
A fine$2.5 MILLION
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced saleAUGUST 2014
Banned for lifeAPRIL 2014
WHAT HAPPENED A RECORDING OF RACIST REMARKS
RULED BY .. COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER
SANCTION .. LIFETIME BAN PLUS $2.5M FINE
TIMING .... THREE DAYS FROM TAPE TO BAN
SOLD FOR .. $2,000,000,000
HISTORY ... HAD SETTLED A MAJOR HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE
RULED BY .. COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER
SANCTION .. LIFETIME BAN PLUS $2.5M FINE
TIMING .... THREE DAYS FROM TAPE TO BAN
SOLD FOR .. $2,000,000,000
HISTORY ... HAD SETTLED A MAJOR HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE
The modern benchmark, and the fastest institutional response in this file: the recording surfaced and within days Adam Silver had banned Sterling for life, fined him the maximum $2.5 million and begun forcing a sale. It reset expectations for every commissioner since. But look at what the ban actually produced. Sterling had owned the Clippers since 1981 through decades of documented controversy including a major housing discrimination settlement, and the punishment that finally arrived required him to sell the franchise to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. He was removed from the sport and enriched beyond anything his stewardship had earned.
10
A fine$10M AND $60M
A suspensionSARVER, ONE YEAR
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced saleBOTH, WITHIN A YEAR
Banned for life-
SARVER .... WORKPLACE CONDUCT INVESTIGATION
SANCTION .. ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION, $10M FINE
OUTCOME ... SOLD SUNS AND MERCURY, ABOUT $4B
SNYDER .... WORKPLACE AND FINANCIAL FINDINGS
ALSO FOUND . ABOUT $11M IMPROPERLY SHIELDED
FROM ...... LEAGUE REVENUE SHARING
SANCTION .. $60 MILLION FINE
OUTCOME ... SOLD FOR $6.05 BILLION IN 2023
SANCTION .. ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION, $10M FINE
OUTCOME ... SOLD SUNS AND MERCURY, ABOUT $4B
SNYDER .... WORKPLACE AND FINANCIAL FINDINGS
ALSO FOUND . ABOUT $11M IMPROPERLY SHIELDED
FROM ...... LEAGUE REVENUE SHARING
SANCTION .. $60 MILLION FINE
OUTCOME ... SOLD FOR $6.05 BILLION IN 2023
The two most recent completed cases belong together because they follow an identical arc: an investigation into how the organisation treated its employees, a sanction that stopped short of expulsion, overwhelming commercial and public pressure, and then a sale. Sarver took a one-year suspension and a $10 million fine and sold the Suns and Mercury within months. Snyder was fined $60 million following an investigation led by Mary Jo White, which sustained a harassment allegation against him personally and separately found that the club had improperly shielded around $11 million from the league's revenue-sharing pool - money owed to the other owners. He sold the Commanders for $6.05 billion - the largest price ever paid for a sports team at that point. Neither man was banned. Both left richer than any owner in the history of their sport.
11
A fine-
A suspension-
Loss of day-to-day control-
A forced sale-
Banned for life-
STATUS .... INVESTIGATION, NO CHARGES FILED
EXAMINING . WHETHER FINANCIAL TIES WERE CONCEALED
AUTHORITIES FEDERAL PROSECUTORS AND THE SEC
ORIGIN .... A WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT ON ACCOUNTING
COMPANIES . SAY THEY ARE COOPERATING
LEAGUE ACTION NONEThe ladder is deliberately empty. No rung has been reached, and none may ever be.
EXAMINING . WHETHER FINANCIAL TIES WERE CONCEALED
AUTHORITIES FEDERAL PROSECUTORS AND THE SEC
ORIGIN .... A WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT ON ACCOUNTING
COMPANIES . SAY THEY ARE COOPERATING
LEAGUE ACTION NONEThe ladder is deliberately empty. No rung has been reached, and none may ever be.
The eleventh entry has no mark on the scale, and that is the point of including it. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining whether Mark Walter or his businesses concealed financial ties while borrowing from insurers he controls - an inquiry reported to have begun with a whistleblower complaint about accounting. His companies say they are cooperating. No charges have been brought, no finding of wrongdoing has been made, and no league has taken any action. He has, separately, sold the Lakers. What makes it worth setting beside the ten cases above is the symmetry: the group he led bought the Dodgers in 2012 because the previous owner's finances had collapsed. Whatever happens next, that is a remarkable place for this file to end.
The Full Ledger
Eleven cases, what was imposed, and how each ownership actually ended.
| Owner | Club | Year | Highest sanction | How it ended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William D. Cox | Phillies | 1943 | Banned for life | Removed within a year |
| George Steinbrenner | Yankees | 1974, 1990 | Suspension, twice | Reinstated, kept the club |
| Leonard Tose | Eagles | 1985 | None imposed | Sold to clear casino debts |
| Marge Schott | Reds | 1993-99 | Loss of control | Sold controlling interest |
| Bruce McNall | Kings | 1994 | None imposed | Prison, club sold |
| John Spano | Islanders | 1996-97 | Purchase unwound | Fraud conviction |
| Eddie DeBartolo Jr. | 49ers | 1998 | Suspension and fine | Gave up control permanently |
| Frank McCourt | Dodgers | 2011 | Club seized | Forced sale, $2.15B |
| Donald Sterling | Clippers | 2014 | Banned for life | Forced sale, $2B |
| Robert Sarver | Suns | 2022 | Suspension and fine | Sold, about $4B |
| Dan Snyder | Commanders | 2023 | $60 million fine | Sold, $6.05B |
The eleventh entry in the article, the open investigation into Mark Walter, is omitted here because no sanction has been imposed and no finding made.
The Arithmetic
The penalty against the payday
Snyder's fine was the largest ever imposed on an owner in American sport. It amounted to roughly one per cent of what he received for the franchise he was pressured into selling.
The Record Book
What Actually Gets You RemovedRead the eleven together and the trigger is remarkably consistent. Losing does not do it - several of these men presided over historically bad teams for decades without consequence. Financial incompetence alone does not reliably do it either. What removes an owner is reputational contagion: conduct that becomes impossible for the other owners to sit beside, usually once it exists in a form the public can hear or read. A tape. A deposition. An independent report. The sanction follows the evidence becoming portable.
The Bottom Rung Is Almost Never UsedIn eighty-three years of American professional sport, the lifetime ban of an owner has been reached about as often as a perfect game. Cox in 1943 and Sterling in 2014 are the clear cases; Steinbrenner's 1990 penalty was styled as indefinite and was lifted within three years. Everything else - including the largest fine ever levied and several investigations running to hundreds of interviews - stopped short. Leagues would rather engineer a sale than expel a member, because expulsion invites litigation and a sale invites a cheque.
The Vetting Came From SpanoThe most durable institutional legacy in this file belongs to the least famous man in it. John Spano bought the Islanders in 1996 without the money to complete, and the collapse of that deal is a substantial part of why every league now demands proof of funds, personal financial disclosure and background checks before a sale is approved. Every owner who has been vetted since - including everyone in the current queue of billion-dollar buyers - is being screened against a template written after a con.
Two Dodgers Crises, Fifteen Years ApartThe symmetry at the end of this file is genuine and worth stating carefully. Major League Baseball seized the Dodgers from Frank McCourt in 2011 and forced a sale that completed in 2012 at $2.15 billion. The buyer was a group led by Mark Walter, whose own businesses are now the subject of a federal examination - one in which no charges have been filed and no wrongdoing established. The same franchise has now been at the centre of two ownership crises in fifteen years, and the second involves the man brought in to resolve the first.
Sports-King's Note
Now for the fine printThe eleventh case in this article is an open investigation and is treated differently from the ten before it for good reason. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reported to be examining whether Mark Walter or businesses he controls concealed financial ties in connection with borrowing from insurers within his group. No charges have been filed, no finding of wrongdoing has been made against him, his companies have said they are cooperating with investigators, and no league has taken any disciplinary action. An investigation is not evidence of an offence, and nothing in this article should be read as suggesting otherwise. For the resolved cases, sanctions and outcomes are as reported at the time and in subsequent accounts: Cox was banned by Commissioner Landis in 1943; Steinbrenner was suspended for two years in 1974 and served fifteen months, then accepted an indefinite suspension in 1990 and was reinstated in March 1993; Schott was suspended for a year and fined $25,000 in 1993, reduced to eight months, gave up day-to-day control from 1996 and sold her controlling interest in October 1999; DeBartolo was fined $1 million and suspended for a year by the NFL in 1998 and later elected to the Hall of Fame and pardoned; Sterling was banned for life and fined $2.5 million in April 2014, with the sale to Steve Ballmer completing that August; Sarver was suspended for a year and fined $10 million in 2022; and Snyder was fined $60 million, with the Commanders sold for $6.05 billion in 2023. Figures for the Tose casino debts are widely reported estimates rather than court findings. The Spano purchase price of $165 million, his claimed net worth of $230 million and the July 11, 1997 date on which he relinquished control are as reported contemporaneously and in subsequent accounts. The finding that the Commanders improperly shielded approximately $11 million from league revenue sharing is from the investigation led by Mary Jo White. Sale prices are transaction values as announced. This article describes conduct that has been publicly reported and, where relevant, admitted or adjudicated; it does not allege anything beyond that record.
One Last Word
The ladder is the wrong shape, and eighty-three years of cases make that hard to argue with. It was designed for a world in which taking a man's franchise away was the most severe thing you could do to him. In a market where the asset has compounded for a century, forcing a sale is not a punishment at all - it is a liquidity event with a press release attached. Donald Sterling was banned for life and handed two billion dollars on the way out. Dan Snyder was fined the largest sum in the history of American sport and received a hundred times that amount for the club he was pressured into selling. The only genuinely severe penalty on this scale is the one at the very bottom, and in eight decades it has been used twice.
The hard numbers, for the road: William D. Cox was banned for life in November 1943, eight months after buying the Phillies, for betting on his own team. George Steinbrenner was suspended twice - two years in 1974 for illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's campaign, serving fifteen months, and indefinitely in 1990 for paying a gambler $40,000 to investigate Dave Winfield - and was reinstated in March 1993. Leonard Tose sold the Eagles in 1985 to clear more than $25 million of casino debt. Marge Schott was suspended for a year and fined $25,000 in 1993, surrendered day-to-day control in 1996 and sold out in October 1999. Bruce McNall was sentenced to 70 months for a fraud of roughly $236 million. Eddie DeBartolo Jr. was fined $1 million and suspended for a year in 1998, gave up the 49ers permanently, and was later enshrined in Canton and pardoned. Major League Baseball seized the Dodgers from Frank McCourt in 2011 and the club sold for $2.15 billion. Donald Sterling was banned for life and fined $2.5 million in 2014, then sold the Clippers for $2 billion. Robert Sarver was suspended for a year and fined $10 million in 2022 and sold the Suns and Mercury. And Dan Snyder was fined $60 million and sold the Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion.
