http://gty.im/461530964
25. Terry & Kim Pegula, Buffalo Bills
- Seasons owned: 1 (32nd)
- Win percentage: 0.5 (17th)
- Playoff rate: 0.0% (29th)
- Championship rate: 0.0% (17th)
- Net worth ($bn): 4 (10th)
- Franchise growth: 32nd
- Investment Factor: 19th
- Gut check: 4th
The Pegulas are victims of tenure. In many ways, they’re the perfect owners: Homegrown, self-made, flagrantly wealthy, committed to the region and endearingly open and humble. But their first head coach, Rex Ryan, is much more Bronx than Buffalo, and the jury is very much out on the immediate future of the franchise. In 20 years, these two may be near the top of this list—but today, they are where they are.
http://gty.im/450105232
24. Mike Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
- Seasons owned: 48 (10th)
- Win percentage: 0.457 (26th)
- Playoff rate: 27.1% (22nd)
- Championship rate: 0.0% (17th)
- Net worth ($bn): 0.924 (30th)
- Franchise growth: 11th
- Investment Factor: 26th
- Gut check: 22nd
Things have changed a lot in Cincinnati. It wasn’t too long ago that Brown would have been at or near the bottom of these rankings. A spendthrift owner who fancied himself a football man, Brown cut every conceivable corner—and the results on the field spoke for themselves.
Now, Brown has allowed scouts to scout, and football men to football. Though he’s still an inheritance owner with no outside interests and one of the worst of the public-money vampires, Who Dey gonna complain about going 49-25-1 (and counting) in five straight playoff seasons?
http://gty.im/82908322
23. Bill Bidwill, Arizona Cardinals
- Seasons owned: 95 (2nd)
- Win percentage: 0.425 (28th)
- Playoff rate: 9.5% (27th)
- Championship rate: 0.0% (18th)
- Net worth ($bn): 0.95 (29th)
- Franchise growth: 3rd
- Investment Factor: 31st
- Gut check: 25th
Like Brown, Bidwill used to be one of the first names off the Bad Owner pile. His father Charles, a Chicago lawyer whose clients likely included Al Capone, originally bought the team. After he died in 1947, his mother Violet and her second husband later moved the team to St. Louis. When Violet passed in 1962, she left the team to her two sons—and Bill bought out his brother Charles’ stake for $6.5 million ten years later.
A move from St. Louis to Phoenix, a name and logo change, and a string of high-profile coaches and top draft picks couldn’t get the stink of losing (or penny-pinching) off the team. But a surprise Super Bowl run, a beautiful new stadium and the hugely successful tenure of head coach Bruce Arians has boosted Bidwill from the bottom of the pile to… well, the bottom of the middle of the pile.
http://gty.im/462015767
22. Jerry Richardson, Carolina Panthers
- Seasons owned: 21 (19th)
- Win percentage: 0.49 (19th)
- Playoff rate: 28.6% (19th)
- Championship rate: 0.0% (17th)
- Net worth ($bn): 1.1 (27th)
- Franchise growth: 22nd
- Investment Factor: 22nd
- Gut check: 6th
This might be the biggest surprise in our rankings. Richardson is a former NFL player who leveraged his salary into an empire of fast-casual restaurants, then knit together an investment group that harnessed the potential fanbase to score an upset unanimous expansion franchise award.
What’s not to love?
Yet, despite lighting-fast on-field success, and a much later return to the Super Bowl, the Panthers have spent many seasons struggling with not-quite-good-enough play. Bank of America stadium, the first built largely with the proceeds of PSL sales, was built at the leading edge of the luxo-stadium revolution, so many of today’s revenue-driving amenities have been absent.
The Panthers have recently pumped $71 million into the stadium to remedy this—and 2011 No. 1 overall draft pick Cam Newton has gotten the team back into perennial playoff contention. As the Panthers continue to succeed on the field, Richardson and his ownership group will only look stronger.
http://gty.im/184672475
21. Alex/Dean Spanos, San Diego Chargers*
- Seasons owned: 32 (14th)
- Win percentage: 0.479 (22nd)
- Playoff rate: 9.4% (28th)
- Championship rate: 0.0% (17th)
- Net worth ($bn): 1.69 (20th)
- Franchise growth: 19th
- Investment Factor: 14th
- Gut check: 15th
The complicated nature of wealthy families sometimes makes narrowing down the title “owner” to one person difficult. Alex Spanos is the owner of the Chargers, and has been since 1984. But his son, Dean, has been the effective shot-caller for years. What was a mutual love affair between the Spanoses and San Diego has soured in recent years, as perpetual inability to broker a stadium deal has the future of the team in serious doubt.
Of the three teams trying to move to Los Angeles, the Chargers have been the most vocal, and most earnest, about staying where they are. But as Chris Jenkins of The San Diego Union-Tribune recently wrote, neither Dean nor Alex have directly worked with the community to rally support.
Worst of all, what might be the final season of the San Diego Chargers has been a barely mitigated disaster; instead of challenging the Broncos for AFC West supremacy, they’ve fallen below the Raiders—into the basement.
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