While things have been slow for the off-season, I started to think about this and I don't recall it being addressed on TGG since I've joined. I was just wondeing who you guys think has been the better owner of the team - Woody Johnson or Leon Hess? I think Woody gets a lot of flak from us (deservedly so) because of the PSL's. I'm as frustrated as anybody about that. And he's probably not a passionate or knowledgable football fan. But, on the other hand, I think he's shown that he's been more than willing to open up his wallet to sign whomever Tannenbaum believes can help the team - including talents who won't sell PSL's per se (ie: Kris Jenkins or Calvin Pace). And I definitely credit him for that. Since I started becoming a big Jets fan in the mid-80's, I always remember thinking of Leon as a devoted owner who was good for the team. Obviously, there wasn't free angency for many of the years he owned the team, so he didn't have the opportunity to "open up his wallet" as much as Woody did, but I seem to recall him being someone who was committed to seeing a winning Jets team. On the other hand, I can never forget his statement (paraphrasing) "I want to win now, so I introduce to you the new Jets' head coach, Rich Kotite". Wow, that was some poor judgement! Anyway, that's my take on these two owners. But I'd be very interested to hear what everyone else thinks.
Woody is a businessman first and foremost. To me, he has always been more interested in cashing in on the Jets than anything else. The whole push for the West Side Stadium, going after Favre, moving up to draft Sanchez (which may turn out to be a good move), but it's always been about raising the street value of the team. Leon was a great businessman and a lousy football man. Yes, he did contact Rick Kotite after Kotite's Eagles had lost the last seven games of the year. You could bet the ranch Leon wasn't going to get a busy signal trying to call Richie. But Leon actually cared about the fans. For years, we were about the only NFL team that didn't make the season ticket holders pay for the Exhibition Games. He seemed genuinely concerned about the fan experience. Mr. Hess was a good man.
I've made no attempt to hide my disdain for Woody Johnson and my love for Leon Hess. It didn't have to be that way. In fact, I started out liking Woody and hoped that with all his money (Lord only knows why he would need more than he already has), he'd somewhat temper the need for profitability with consideration for the very fan base that helped build his franchise to begin with, the same loyal fans who still go to games despite brutally disappointing consecutive decades of mediocrity. That's the way Leon looked at it, I'm sure... tried to look at it through the eyes of the fan. But not so with Woody. My ticket prices doubled in the Mezz in 8 years with 10% ad-on hikes year in and year out, mediocrity still running rampant. The man is killing the ticketholders and in so doing, the entire Jets fan base that likes to go to a reasonably priced game now and then. Those days are over, as tickets will be through the roof (pun intended, since we don't even have a dome to show for all this so-called state of the art horseshit). Woody had a chance to oppose Mara and Tisch too... he didn't have to go along with all of it, and he could have called them on a lot of it, on the "shared cost" part, the nonsensical, unnecessary, over-budget lavishness of it all. He could have questioned a lot of things in the name of the fan base but didn't, choosing to become what amounts to the NY Giants little puppet, agreeing with the need to spend money on this monstrosity like a drunken sailor. The little whimp who wants to appear the football man but who fools no one, least of all the Giants, who are still laughing at his gullable naivety. Now, it can be said that Woody opened his wallet more, especially recently. I think Leon would have opened his to the same extent, and especially recently, but he would have done it not to sell PSLs but to genuinely give the ticketholders and fans something to love about the franchise again. That would have been his first motivation... then the selling of tickets second. The reverse is true with Woody. He opened his wallet only to sell the program, stopping at nothing to create enough splash to egg on the dollars. Bring in Brett Favre, use Joe Namath to promote a new stadium, give Tannenbaum carte blanche to sign whomever he wanted. All this will end after the PSLs are sold... that's my biggest fear. If we don't win the VLT by 2011 we'll probably go another 40 years, because my prediction is the spending will stop and the wallet will close. Why shouldn't it, the deal is done already, isn't it?
Leon never cared about putting a winning product on the field and ripped the team out of Shea to put it across two rivers from its fanbase. But yeah, he sure cared about the fans.
New York screwed Leon Hess by never even letting him as much as sniff a football stadium, choosing instead to make him play football across the dirt on the pitcher's mound and forcing him to schedule games around baseball playoffs. He had no choice but to rip the team out of Shea... best thing he ever did, because his fan base included New Jersey also and at least he was finally in a football stadium. I see that as a huge plus for Hess and showed how much he cared about the franchise. As far as not caring about putting a winning product on the field, please provide proof of same. The same lame thing can be said for every owner in the NFL who doesn't win a SB every year. Concerning caring about the fans, Leon did. He fought against charging for mandatory Preseason Games and always kept the ticket prices within reasonable limits. He didn't have to do that. Compare that to what Woody is doing and there's no comparison as far as compassion for the fans.
Thanks for your input, Sec 227! That was a truly cogent and persuasive argument about why Leon was better for the franchise than Woody has been. In fact, you now have me nervous about the spending potentially discontinuing after PSL's are sold. I hope that's somewhat mitigated by the salary cap - it seems essentially all NFL franchises end up spending the same amount on players due to the cap (as compared with, say, MLB where the differences between the Yankees and the Pirates or Nationals is enormous).
I agree, and good previous post, too, which I will get back to. But Leon was the owner in 98 when the Jets came within 20 minutes of going to the SB, losing to a team that won the SB. How well has Woody done? My main problem with Woody is I get the distinct impression he bought the team in order to play around with the real estate end of operations. Specifically the WSS deal, which imo was totally wrong for the fans. But that is what Woody wanted. But even though that fell through, he's done nothing but make moves that are adverse to the Jets' traditional fanbase. It was one thing to move from Shea to the Meadowlands. I never liked the team being a tenant, but it was overall a good move. But now, he's let Plan B to the WSS become a sort of "let's partner with the Giants by becoming more like them" deal. I dunno, if I were the owner of the Jets, I think I would have not ended up as he has done, but would have found a way to take a different approach more suited to the different fanbase the Jets have as compared to the Giants. I am not even sure Woody is aware the Jets historically have had a different fanbase, other than the show me your tits stuff. If he is aware he doesn't seem to respect the difference. Btw I don't say this as a Giant hater. I say it as a fan of the Jets. I don't think Woody really is one. My take is if he had a chance to switch places and own the Giants, he makes that move in a heartbeat. Leon, to say the least, never would have wanted to do that.
OMG, this says it all. I wish I could be as concise and state my case in such an edited version. Big Blocker truly has writing skills that I have yet to possess, that of reducing his thoughts to several sentences which usually take me paragraphs to convey.
My grandfather worked for Mr. Hess in his first gas station. He recalls him as a class act all the way. From what I have seen of Woody, meh, not so much.
I've only been around for Woody's years, but as a fan of the Florida Marlins I know what it is like for a FO not to give a shit and not go after any big time free agents or take any kind of risky actions. Woody, in other words, for whatever the reasons may be (PSLs, whatever) goes out and gets guys who he thinks can benefit the team in winning ballgames.
The elderly Jewish couple that I bought my tickets from in 1985 were friends of Leon Hess and also knew Dick Young, the sports writer for the Daily News back in the 70's and 80's. Rhoda was my bookeeper and her husband was the Jets fan with the tickets. They originally got their tickets through this connection and then passed them along to me (without charge or vig) when they decided to retire to Florida. Anyway, they remember Leon driving around in the oil truck and delivering home fuel oil to residents in the Perth Amboy area. He was supposedly a hard-working man and always charging fair prices. He hellped build this business himself as a self-made man, as opposed to Woody, who has always been the recipient of hand-downs. And therein lies the difference, Davecrazy.
