Is Katz the most inept owner in pro sports history??

[Barrsy]

Imagine if his sorry ass wasn't gifted McD.
Made playoffs once in his wretched history.But at least he was able to extort an Arena out of the City.
At least the EIG knew a bit about winning on a limited budget.

Click to read more...

 

[Missing smitty]

He's no Melnyk, but there are 31 other owners who can laugh in his face.

 

[Del Preston]

He's gotta be a contender for the title.

 

[82Ninety42011]

He spends just on the wrong people.

 

[elmeroil]

Bingo!

 

[Barrsy]

He spends just on the wrong people.

That makes him stupid. And bad. And inept.

 

[Beerfish]

He's no Melnyk, but there are 31 other owners who can laugh in his face.

Ottawa has made the playoffs 7 times since 06-07
oilers once.

Melnky did not fleece his city.
Melynk doesn't have the bucks katz has.
Melnyk faces the music even if he behaves bizarrely.
Katz is worse.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

he's a smart business man but a dumb hockey owner...look at his record as owner:

3 failed GMs
7 coaches in 10 years
top 10 pick in the draft in 9 of 10 years as owner
1 playoff spot

he's probably frustrated and mad and changes will be made but not the right ones

 

[Missing smitty]

Ottawa has made the playoffs 7 times since 06-07
oilers once.

Melnky did not fleece his city.
Melynk doesn't have the bucks katz has.
Melnyk faces the music even if he behaves bizarrely.
Katz is worse.

True, I guess. But I don't have a problem with Katz taking the city to the cleaners and Melnyk being broke doesn't give him a pass. I'd put them in the same level of bad owners.

 

[The Hound]

The Glazers.

 

[guymez]

Its debatable if Katz is the worst owner in Pro sports history.

To me though I dont care if he is or not...I just care that he has been the single reason why this team (aside from 1 year) has been an abject failure during his entire tenure. He is the reason...he hires the people that supposedly run the team and he decides how much or how little his OBC friends get to meddle in the decision making.
With a Katz owned team its impossible to know who is really in charge and that is by design IMO.
Its his toy...his fun time with the glory days boys. I respect Spector for at least having the backbone to speak out loud about some of what goes on behind the scenes. He backed off the next day so it was clear he was reprimanded for doing so but he said what needed to be said.

As I have stated many times over the last 10 years...his approach to running this team has created a completely dysfunctional environment and is the core reason why this team fails year after year.
Nothing is going to change unless Katz changes his approach and I see very little evidence to suggest that is ever going to happen.
We best get used to it.

 

[82Ninety42011]

That makes him stupid. And bad. And inept.

He's definitely not stupid but shows too much loyalty that's for sure. He for some strange reason will not fire Kevin Lowe who still is in the front office. They need someone from outside the organization to come in and clean house.

 

[McJadeddog]

Katz is the worst owner in pro-sports, without question. His allegiance to the OBC knows no bounds. All we can hope for is that he sells the team, or comes to his senses and fires the entire OBC. I doubt he will ever cross his OBC-buddies, so we have to hope against hope that he will sell the team - but that will never happen.

 

[Soundwave]

Hire a half way decent GM. Hell hire Brian Burke.

To be this bad with McDavid means the level of management you're getting is so far below par that you're off the map.

Even Chia as dumb of a dumb f*** as he is, if even one of his stupid moves went right, he'd likely have a defence force of tons of people here claiming he's good because McDavid masks so many problems.

That's the frustrating thing, this isn't even that hard.

 

[82Ninety42011]

Its debatable if Katz is the worst owner in Pro sports history.

To me though I dont care if he is or not...I just care that he has been the single reason why this team (aside from 1 year) has been an abject failure during his entire tenure. He is the reason...he hires the people that supposedly run the team and he decides how much or how little his OBC friends get to meddle in the decision making.
With a Katz owned team its impossible to know who is really in charge and that is by design IMO.
Its his toy...his fun time with the glory days boys. I respect Spector for at least having the backbone to speak out loud about some of what goes on behind the scenes. He backed off the next day so it was clear he was reprimanded for doing so but he said what needed to be said.

As I have stated many times over the last 10 years...his approach to running this team has created a completely dysfunctional environment and is the core reason why this team fails year after year.
Nothing is going to change unless Katz changes his approach and I see very little evidence to suggest that is ever going to happen.
We best get used to it.

Did not realize this glad our owner in Vancouver finally stepped back as he was known to meddle to.

 

[StevenF1919]

Mike Piazza

 

[booyakasha]

Yes

 

[PBandJ]

He's closing in on Harold Ballard/Bill Wirtz level.

 

[Zerotonine]

This is aloaded question . How do we not know Katz is trying to make moves and being talked out of it by the obc like Lowe .we already know he was talked out of firing tmac early in year so why isn't he being lead astray with other decisions.


To me to blame a guy who saved your franchise and built the new rink not to mention with the refacing of your downtown area And to add insult to injury spends to the cap no questions asked .again hits a loaded question with multiple answers

 

[booyakasha]

This is aloaded question . How do we not know Katz is trying to make moves and being talked out of it by the obc like Lowe .we already know he was talked out of firing tmac early in year so why isn't he being lead astray with other decisions.


To me to blame a guy who saved your franchise and built the new rink not to mention with the refacing of your downtown area And to add insult to injury spends to the cap no questions asked .again hits a loaded question with multiple answers

come again?
Where was he when Edmonton needed him most?....alot of other folks bucked up, even beyond their means to save the franchise, and he katz was no where to be seen.
He did NOTHING to save the franchise.....but I do remember his lame attempt to move them to Seattle.

 

[McDrai]

We had way better teams with the previous ownership group (who had an extremely limited budget and minimal skilled players). So yes, Katz is one of the worst owners in the history of the NHL considering he has every resource at his disposal. His main problem is that he treats the organization like a golf and country Club. Most of the hires are based on a "who do you know" basis. As we can see, Nicholson is a big culprit in regards to this since Katz stepped down from the hockey operations side. It seems like he just hires solely based on who he knows from hockey Canada. Not hiring based on who has the best resume and who is the right fit for the particular position. Until Katz sets the tone and treats the Oilers like a serious performance based organization we will always be in the bottom portion of the league, no matter who we draft.

 

[MikeGrier99]

He's no Melnyk, but there are 31 other owners who can laugh in his face.

Melnyk runs circles around Katz if winning is the standard (which is 99% of what I care about from an owner). The Sens have won 6 playoff rounds (including a trip to the finals) during Melnyk's 15 year tenure. They made the playoffs 9 out of 15 years, which is 60% of the time.

Under Katz the Oilers have won 1 playoff round and made the playoffs once out of 11 times, a 9% success rate. Katz also had a much more loyal market base, more personal fortune, and more income and revenue.

Katz is the worst owner, it would take a twenty year playoff streak for the Oilers to say they made the playoffs 60% of the time under Katz. Think about how bad that is, an entire decade without playoffs (in a league where 53%+ make it) is legendarily bad. The odds of flipping a coin and getting heads ten times in a row is 1/1024.

We won't see an owner have a worse competitive streak than Katz for a long time, perhaps ever. Only a handful of markets could sustain that woeful level of play without going out of business, and hockey crazy Edmonton is one of them.

 

[Missing smitty]

Melnyk runs circles around Katz if winning is the standard (which is 99% of what I care about from an owner). The Sens have won 6 playoff rounds (including a trip to the finals) during Melnyk's 15 year tenure. They made the playoffs 9 out of 15 years, which is 60% of the time.

Under Katz the Oilers have won 1 playoff round and made the playoffs once out of 11 times, a 9% success rate. Katz also had a much more loyal market base, more personal fortune, and more income and revenue.

Katz is the worst owner, it would take a twenty year playoff streak for the Oilers to say they made the playoffs 60% of the time under Katz. Think about how bad that is, an entire decade without playoffs (in a league where 53%+ make it) is legendarily bad. The odds of flipping a coin and getting heads ten times in a row is 1/1024.

We won't see an owner have a worse competitive streak than Katz for a long time, perhaps ever. Only a handful of markets could sustain that woeful level of play without going out of business, and hockey crazy Edmonton is one of them.

True, you're probably right

 

[Barrsy]

He's closing in on Harold Ballard/Bill Wirtz level.

Oh, Im pretty sure hes exceeded them.
I wonder what his chief information officer/apologist Bob Stauffer would have to say about the disgrace his boss has produced.
No wonder why that guy doesn't have the nuts to show his "sniffeling" mug at the Arena. Hes embarrassed by his record setting ineptness.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Some silly overreactions here. At worst Katz is an absentee owner. He doesn't really interfere much and he hires people like Chia, McLellan, Nicholson that almost everybody here was thrilled to have. I was one of the very few posters not in favor of any of these coming on board.

Katz seems mostly indifferent to the actual current team. He grew up in a time where most sports owners were like that. Just had pro hockey players as play things and could give a toss other than some wining and dining and feeling like a bigshot.

The worst owners are the ones that know next to nothing and are interfering.

Also some double edged swords exist. The Oilers have made a lot of coin in promotions and events involving the OBC and alumni. Pretty much a constant parade of that shit ever since the Heritage Classic. Katz happens to be present owner of one of the most storied franchises and best team that ever played the game. In pro sports that kind of lineage often comes with a cost in terms of that network feeling very entitled.

The org might even be in a worse position, and might not even be an Edmonton team if the OBC had ever been completely purged. I doubt Katz would even be the owner or that we would still have a club.