July 26, 2006

ISLANDERS SHOWING REASONS WHY THEY ARE A LOSING ORGANIZATION

       I have written often about the reasons why some organizations are consistent losers—and it’s due to consistently horrible management.  The New York Islanders are the latest organization to prove that point.  To have an owner, who admittedly knows very little about the sport, come up with the egregious plan to place himself at the head of the hockey organization shows how successful businessmen can lose their smarts once they enter the sporting arena.  Intelligence gets pushed out of the way and ego takes its place.

       To have an organization where every member of the hockey management team is essentially equal, and they all report to one person, the owner, is a gross miscalculation of the business of sport and could lead the club, once and for all, to possible extinction.  It is not surprising, therefore, to hear that an experienced hockey executive like Neil Smith, used to the very old and very successful hierarchal management style where the General Manager essentially runs the hockey program, balked at the committee approach and was fired.  It is surprising, however, that Smith actually lasted approximately one month in his position—I probably would have told the owner to stow it as soon as I found out about his cockamamie plan. 

      Islander executives will be viewed, around the league, as show ponies—castrated by their owner.  An individual cannot make a decision without checking with the owner.  All trade possibilities, all contract negotiations, any discussion whatsoever to do with a hockey-related topic will have to be shelved until the manager can run the idea by his owner.   That owner, Charles Wang, believes that running a hockey operation—even if it is high-profile—is similar to his business operations, and can by run, successfully, by one person.  Wang did try the standard sports operation business practice for the first few years of his ownership—having a hockey man head the operation, but he mistakenly had a man at the lead, Mike Milbury, who proved his ineptness at the position over and over again.  Believing that nobody can do it better he decided to do it himself.   

      Islander fans have had to deal with ineptitude in the organization since the Bill Torrey/Al Arbour championship teams ended in the eighties.  The club’s most successful years saw them barely make the playoffs—more often the Islanders were one of the worst clubs in the sport.  It is unlikely that failure will leave the club anytime soon.  It has been proven repeatedly that when an ego-driven owner, obviously successful in his own business or he couldn’t afford a professional hockey team, believes that he has the smarts to run a sports team that the team inevitably fails.

       I can almost hear the executives around the league chuckling to themselves.  For years General Managers knew that they could extract good players from the Islanders as long as Milbury had the authority to make decisions.  That thought process disappeared when Smith was brought on--but it’s back now.  And the Islanders, surprisingly, could actually be worse off than they were during the Milbury years.  I can almost feel the sorrowful whimpers of all Islander fans.  It just keeps going from bad to worse.