I never liked George Steinbrenner. If i was a Yankee fan, i probably would say the opposite. But one thing about him that i give him credit for is that he wanted to win at all costs, no matter how much it would cost. Today, we live in a world where many sports franchises are owned by corporations. Most of these corporations have boards of directors whose priority is to look at the bottom line: profits. Many of those folks don't give a damn about baseball, hockey, basketball, etc. They'd rather look at graphics & charts instead of watching a game their team is involved in.
As a fan of such a team, the Jays, i envy the fans of such teams as Boston & NY with their John Henrys & Steinbrenners overseeing operations. These owners have the passion required to win championships. The only bottom line that they care about is winning. Period.
Meanwhile in Toronto, the team has a maximum budget that it will spend on players. As long as the billion-dollar 'Rogers' empire makes huge profits, they don't care if the team wins or not. As long as the fans keep tuning it to their games on the Rogers-owned network, they simply don't care. Same thing with the Maple Leafs & the Raptors, owned my MLSE, a subsiduary of the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. The games are sold out, they also own their own stations (Leafs TV & Raptors TV), they get huge amounts of money for the broadcasting rights and the Leafs games have been sold-out since 1962. So why spend more money?
George Steinbrenner as a trail blazer in how to make winners out of sports franchises & for this, i'll always respect him. But single owner or family-owned sports franchises are a dying breed. However, many of the most successful teams today are owned by these same types of individuals: Mark Cuban, Jerry Buss, Jerry Jones, etc. Of course, you'll always have Al Davis, Ralph Wilson & Michael Jordan to disprove that theory. However, most often than not, dynasties in sports will rarely be owned by corporations.
People in Montreal, i do envy you for this......your team (Montreal Canadiens) is owned by an ownership group with passion for winning. In the last few years, from George Gillette to the two Molson brothers, there's been a constant. The team is owned by people that love hockey. They're not owned by a pension fund. Just take the Expos. They used to be operated very well when Charles Bronfman owned the team. In their final years, the team was owned by a group of corporations (Jean Coutu among them) and individual millionaires. It had become a Mickey Mouse organization and look where it got them: Washington DC.
Love him or hate him, George Steinbrenner will be missed.
