Is there any way to force an owner to sell his team?

CHRDANHUTCH

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Mar 4, 2002
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Like all the other owners will make some unified decision that will tell some owner, he is not anymore welcome in their circles...
CASE BY CASE BASIS, as is with everything legal, unless it's a blatant violation of league rules or bylaws, depending on the violation, short answer is no....
 

Noldo

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May 28, 2007
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Generally it is far easier to reject a potential owner than get rid of an approved one, the reason why the League fought tooth and nail against shenanigans in Phoenix.

I would not be surprised if the NHL bylaws / franchise agreement would include a redemption clause that would allow the League to redeem in case the owner’s actions and behavior would be detrimental to the League but the threshold for such action would be very high and require consent of supermajority of the owners. (See NBA’s actions in case Sterling)
 

gstommylee

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Jan 31, 2012
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There has to be legitimate reason to pull a franchise away from an owner. Like if someone commits a serious crime and goes to jail for quite so time would be one example. Another would be if he stopped paying payroll to the players and staff would be another. The league can't legally force an owner out just cause they don't like him with out invoking a potential huge legal fight.
 
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gstommylee

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Generally it is far easier to reject a potential owner than get rid of an approved one, the reason why the League fought tooth and nail against shenanigans in Phoenix.

I would not be surprised if the NHL bylaws / franchise agreement would include a redemption clause that would allow the League to redeem in case the owner’s actions and behavior would be detrimental to the League but the threshold for such action would be very high and require consent of supermajority of the owners. (See NBA’s actions in case Sterling)

Regarding sterling, the NBA didn't make him sell the team. They couldn't. The co-owner of the team (ex wife i believe?) had to go to the courts to have him declared mentally unfit and take control of the franchise once that happened she sold the team to Balmer. If the courts deemed him mentally fit, he would still be the owner of the clippers today and probably gone after the NBA legally for that attempt.
 
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gstommylee

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Jan 31, 2012
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secretly record an old man saying some semi-racist views to his young hot girlfriend. that'll do it.

Donald Sterling

but the NBA never forced him out. He was stripped ownership cause the co-owner had him declared mentally unfit. You can't legally remove someone cause of someone said in their own house in a recording that probably wasn't legally obtained with his permission. NBA knew that too hence the mentally unfit route. It wasn't Donald Sterling that ended up selling the team. It was his estranged ex wife that co-owned the team that did after she took control of the franchise.
 

Yukon Joe

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So the Sterling case is about the only analogue I could think of.

I went back: it was a complicated set of facts. Sterling wasn't forced out, although the league had suspended him from being near the team and was looking into trying to force a sale. His wife got permission from Sterling to negotiate a sale, then Sterling reneged and said he didn't give permission, then there were lawsuits, then Sterling was ruled to be suffering from Alzheimers and wasn't competent, allowing the sale to be completed.

What we can learn from this is A: it's going to be complicated and messy; and B: who knows what the reaons would be. In Sterling's case, while he said some incredibly racist things about blacks (in a league with a lot of black fans and a predominantly black player base), it's not that what he said was illegal. You're allowed to say racist things in private (or in public for that matter). It was just that the PR for the NBA was so bad they were compelled to act.
 
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Lt Dan

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So the Sterling case is about the only analogue I could think of.

I went back: it was a complicated set of facts. Sterling wasn't forced out, although the league had suspended him from being near the team and was looking into trying to force a sale. His wife got permission from Sterling to negotiate a sale, then Sterling reneged and said he didn't give permission, then there were lawsuits, then Sterling was ruled to be suffering from Alzheimers and wasn't competent, allowing the sale to be completed.

What we can learn from this is A: it's going to be complicated and messy; and B: who knows what the reaons would be. In Sterling's case, while he said some incredibly racist things about blacks (in a league with a lot of black fans and a predominantly black player base), it's not that what he said was illegal. You're allowed to say racist things in private (or in public for that matter). It was just that the PR for the NBA was so bad they were compelled to act.
So they pretty much did the same thing that the MLB did to Marge Schott, so you answered the question I asked above. The league really can't do much
 

KevinRedkey

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Jan 22, 2010
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The league's board of directors can vote to get rid of someone. Not sure if it has to be unanimous or not.

Either way it's super unlikely.
 
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Yukon Joe

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The only two examples I can think of for an owner being forced out are Donald Sterling and Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is not a helpful example. Apple at the time was a publicly held company with multiple shareholders. It's uncommon, but not unheard of, for a founder and owner of many, but not a majority, of shares to be forced out of being the President/CEO. Look at John Schnatter of Pappa John's Pizza, who was forced out of the company after using the N word on a conference call. But for both Jobs, and Schnatter, they were not forced to sell their shares.
 

gstommylee

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Jan 31, 2012
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The league's board of directors can vote to get rid of someone. Not sure if it has to be unanimous or not.

Either way it's super unlikely.

they can't vote to remove someone just for the sake of doing so. Anti-trust laws prevent that.
 

Snarky Coyote

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The league has a charter that has some sort of generic good of the game/personal misconduct language. All contracts do however the reality is that the offense has to be pretty amazing for the owners to turn on another owner, because once that happens...… it sets precedent that no one wants.
 

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