New Jersey Devils: Josh Harris Is Least Successful Owner in Sports

Usually, when speaking about “bad owners”, sports fans and historians tend to think of the meddling or eccentric types.  Donald Sterling, Charles O. Finley, and Marge Schott come to mind.  Or, in our beloved sport of hockey, Peter Pocklington. But what about plain old bad results in the win (or loss) column? Is Josh Harris the least successful owner of sports franchises in the world? He could be.

Let’s kick this off by defining the clubs Mr. Harris owns or has an ownership stake in.  He, along with a group of investors, bought the Philadelphia 76ers in July of 2011. Mr. Harris’ involvement with the Devils began in August 2013 when he and others purchased a majority stake in the Devils.  And in December of 2015, Josh Harris finalized the acquisition of South London Football Association Club Crystal Palace, a member of the English Premier League, the top soccer league in the world. My son, a passionate Devils, 76ers and Chelsea supporter, often waxes poetic about the total and utter ineptitude of all of Harris’ teams, both here in CONUS and across the pond.

What are some of the highlights of Mr. Harris’ tenure as a professional sports owner.

• None of his teams have made the playoffs. Ever. Not once.
• Expanding his “least successful owner” efforts to two continents is a truly innovative method of attempting to win that crown! Got to give him points for creativity there.
• Crystal Palace was sixth in the league in December of 2015. They are now eighteenth, which means they are occupying one of the dreaded placed in the “Drop Zone” in the Premiership. This means, for you non-soccer fans, that if the season ended today, they would be relegated to the league below (the soccer equal to the American Hockey League).
• The unofficial team slogan for the Philadelphia 76ers is now “Trust The Process“.  That’s not a tag phrase typically associated with elite performances!
• Palace did make the F.A. Cup Finals at Wembley last year. Amazing place, I visited it last month. That’s a big deal in England. But, alas, Palace lost to Manchester United. No silverware for them.
• We all know about the Devils less-than-mediocre performances since 2013. I won’t rub salt in the wound by recapping those in great detail.

Are Poor Results His Fault?

So okay, Mr. Harris’ teams have poor results. We get it. But is it all his fault? Not necessarily.

In Philadelphia, I actually agree with the “process”, so to speak. The execution has been poor — it does not look like Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor are going to work out too terribly well — but that’s not necessarily all his fault. That’s on basketball operations. The concept of tanking for bringing in top talent makes sense in the NBA, a league where, without stars, a team has no chance to win a title.

At Crystal Palace, to be fair, Mr. Harris has not had control long enough to take a lot of blame.  But they better get their act together quickly before they are sent down. The margin for error in the EPL is far slimmer than that in an American sports league. That could be a $100 million hit if they are not careful.

With the Devils, the team most readers of this article care about, it’s important to begin by highlighting some of the many positive aspects of his ownership time with the club. Mr. Harris brought much-needed solvency and financial stability to the organization.

He has invested in the arena, The Rock is considerably nicer for both the fans and the players. The organization is first-class, particularly in the way former club legends have been honored and treated. He has massively increased club staffing to improve service. And the Devils connection with the community in Newark is impressive and steadily increasing as is their connection to the community via the One Jersey campaign. And I know Mr. Harris does similar things in Philadelphia with their training facility and the like.

Spending More Money Helps

The Devils consistently spend way below the cap. So their talent pool is pretty thin. John Hynes is forced to do more with less.  That’s not easy.

With respect to building fan support, despite good faith efforts, at times the Prudential Center operations staff do incredibly petty things like banning horns (which are permitted in many NHL arenas) or clamp down on fan behavior to make things more “fan friendly”. But it isn’t working, again, despite their best intentions, attendance seems to be lagging more and more as the years go by. Also, just as an aside, I attended the Devils-Flyers game at Wells Fargo this past weekend. That place is “Exhibit A” in any argument that there is no need to make things “fan friendly” at a hockey game to ensure a packed house and passionate fan base.

Sports has a report card. It’s wins and losses. Josh Harris’ record is, frankly, somewhat abysmal.

Personally, I, as a rank and file fan, am not sure if Mr. Harris attends most Devils games to show his interest and support for the team.  He should in my view, leadership needs to set the done.  If Mr. Harris does attend matches, he has almost no public presence. Therefore, we as fans get no sense that the owner cares about making the team great again, which stands in strong juxtaposition to the recent inductee to the Devils Ring Of Honor, the Devils founding owner,  Dr. John McMullen. There is a man who cared! We don’t know, but it seems like, on the surface, that Mr. Harris is not all that interested that he’s in the discussion for the ‘honor” of the least successful owner in sports. Again, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt and not make that assumption, but it’s a hard one not to make.

There is a man who cared! We don’t know, but it seems like, on the surface, that Mr. Harris is not all that interested that he’s in the discussion for the ‘honor” of the least successful owner in sports. Again, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt and not make that assumption, but it’s a hard one not to make.

Conspicuous By His Absence

I’d love to see more of a public presence from our owner, as well as an owner who freely opens up his checkbook to bring in players to win each year. Let it be noted that I’m not talking about unreasonable long-term contracts for guys on the back-end of their career (like an Andrew Ladd). But, for a team with a defense which is not all that great, a moderately priced player like a David Schlemko or even overpaying someone like a Kris Russell on a short-term (one year) deal are prime examples of ways monetary investment would help the Devils without severely impacting the club’s long-term salary cap strategy.

Ray Shero is a smart guy. I can’t believe he would not have pursued defenders like Russell or a Dennis Seidenberg if money was available. Those are established NHL defenders who are better than the Kyle Quincy or Jon Merrill like marginal talents the Devils are rolling out there every night. Why would he not want them? They were literally available during the latter stages of training camp. The only logical conclusion I can reach is that the team is on a very low operating budget for player salaries.

Next: Devils Young Core is Coming Together

I could be wrong about Mr. Harris and the Devils. Actually, I hope I’m wrong. As noted, he’s invested in the arena, fan experience, pregame show, the team’s new locker rooms and made connections with the community and has respect for the team’s heritage.  That’s all very nice. But the harsh reality is that, in sports, facts are facts. We see three franchises, no playoffs, and a team close to relegation. It’s not the most impressive dossier in the world.

Perhaps someday Mr. Harris will decide it’s unacceptable to preside over so many losing franchises and be the least successful owner in the country. That would be terrific, all Devils fans would welcome him and any increased interest and participation with open arms, for we truly need a bit more of a Jerry Jones or Roman Abramovich mentality in our ownership group. Perhaps someday that will come to fruition.