A black man could be the principle owner of the St. Louis Blues.
Introducing David Steward, founder and chairman of America’s most-successful African-American-owned business, World Wide Technology.
With sales revenues passing $1.4 billion for a third straight year, Steward ranks as one of the region’s most successful business owners, be they black or white. Fortune has the Blues and Savvis Center valued at $140 million, by the way – exactly 10 percent of what WWT registered in sales. Yet, his name is not mentioned as a potential buyer of the St. Louis Blues.
Sure, he might not know a darn thing about hockey, but billionaire Malcolm Glazer knows nothing about Europeaon football – or soccer, as we call it in America – yet he is now principle owner of the world’s most popular team, Manchester United.
What does Rams owner Georgia Frontierre really know about football? What did late Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott know about baseball? For that matter, what does Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson know about basketball? The man is 5-7 on a good day and reportedly never played a team sport of any kind.
But he has the cash and he owns the NBA team.
The same could be true for Steward.
If he doesn’t want to go it alone, Steward could enlist Kelvin Westbrook, founder and CEO of Millennium Digital Cable ($101.6 million in 2004 sales) and Mike and Steve Roberts of the Roberts Companies ($39.4 million in 2004 sales).
These gentlemen and their firms are all listed among the most-successful black business owners in America, according to Black Enterprise, with Steward alone at the summit.
Black America is searching for positive role models, and this could be the definitive statement that African Americans can not only succeed in business, but can break new ground in business ownership.
The Laurie family grew tired of losing money and have decided to sell the St. Louis Blues. As a Boston-based firm searches for a buyer, Mayor Francis Slay and the St. Louis powers-that-be should try to make an end-run and find the perfect St. Louis owners.
That ownership team should be led by Steward and backed by several other prominent local African Americans.
The city and Civic Progress should then structure the same lucrative deal for this group as it would for a ownership group led by a white person. And, before you say, “Of course, they would,” history has proven that even successful, affluent black people get worse terms on loans and financing than whites with spottier credit ratings.
Yes, a black guy could own the Blues. WWT advertises at the Savvis Center, and Steward’s firm has a suite for all home games.
So why can’t he own the building and the team?
What does the National Hockey League or St. Louis have to lose?
Duane Lewis deserves better
While John Hadley of KTRS-AM might have good intentions in his new post with the St. Louis Rams, the fact of the matter is that his hiring should be considered a direct insult to Pubic Relations Director Duane Lewis.
Lewis, who is in his seventh season with the Rams, has paid his dues in working his way up the ladder to a prominent position with the Rams. Now, overnight, he will have to contend with a wild-card who is still part of the St. Louis media. Whether this is a conflict of interest is for others to debate, but Lewis should watch his back.
Hadley told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m not here to take over – Duane Lewis is the PR director and the guy the media deals with, not me. (But) if I see something I think should be contested, I’m not going to go to the PR department and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got numbers to disprove this theory.’ I’ll take care of it myself.”
In other words, as the newly appointed director of research and internet consultant, Hadley reports to Martz and no one else. This gives Lewis absolutely no authority over a person who represents the Rams to the media.
It’s a great situation for Hadley. It’s a no-win deal for the bright Lewis.
