Sidney L. Shlenker (August 14, 1936 – April 23, 2003) was an American businessman. His management/ownership of a series of professional sports teams was marked by both success and controversy.

Early life

Shlenker was born in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

. His family moved to Houston two years later. He graduated from St. John's School in Houston, and attended

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, but dropped out without graduating.

Career

Shlenker met

Roy Hofheinz Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912 – November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1934 to 1936, county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city ...

, the owner of the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and the Astrodome. Shlenker began promoting non-sporting events held at the Astrodome. In 1966, Shlenker and Allen Becker founded Pace Management Company, which focused on event promotion. In 1975, the Astros hired Shlenker as their president. He fired Spec Richardson, the team's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

, and hired

Tal Smith Talbot Merton Smith (born September 27, 1933) is an American former professional baseball executive who has served in high baseball operations positions—including general manager and club president—as well as the founder of a firm that advises ...

. Shlenker became a part-owner of the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) in 1982. In May 1985, he bought the NBA's

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

for $20 million. He reached an agreement with the city of Denver to renovate the

McNichols Arena McNichols Sports Arena was an indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. Located adjacent to Mile High Stadium and completed in 1975, at a cost of $16 million, it seated 16,061 for hockey games and 17,171 for basketball games. Sports use It was ...

. Shlenker also owned the Denver Dynamite of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

(AFL). He refused to operate by the financial rules of the AFL, and suspended the team's operations after one season. In June 1987, the Major Indoor Soccer League granted a conditional franchise to Shlenker, to begin play in the 1988–89 season. The team, tentatively named the "Denver Desperados", attracted deposits for 400 season tickets within four months, short of the required 5,000; the franchise was revoked in November 1987. In September 1988, Shlenker purchased the Colorado / Denver Rangers of the International Hockey League. He declared the team bankrupt in June 1989. Shlenker sold Nuggets in November 1989 for $65 million. Shlenker then moved to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, where he managed the construction of the Memphis Pyramid. In 1991, he was removed from the project after failing to obtain financing and his company filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. The year before, Shlenker's plans to remove the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island to make space for bars and restaurants fell through thanks to intervention of the

West Tennessee Historical Society The West Tennessee Historical Society (WTHS) is a nonprofit historical society servicing the twenty-one counties that comprise West Tennessee. Headquartered in Memphis, the society was officially founded in 1935, but traces its roots to a series ...

, the Mud Island Foundation, and then-Mayor of Memphis,

Richard Hackett Richard Cecil "Dick" Hackett (born July 21, 1949) was mayor of the city of Memphis, Tennessee from 1982 to 1991. He also served as Shelby County (Tennessee) Clerk from 1978 to 1982. At the time that he took office as mayor, he was 33 years old ...

Personal life

Shlenker testified in the trial of Heidi Fleiss, the "Hollywood Madam", in 1995. As a former customer, he received immunity for his testimony. Shlenker suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1998 motor vehicle accident on

U.S. Route 395 U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a U.S. Route in the western United States. The southern terminus of the route is in the Mojave Desert at Interstate 15 near Hesperia. The northern terminus is at the Canada–US border near Laurier, where the road be ...

Big Pine, California Big Pine (formerly, Bigpine) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. Big Pine is located approximately south-southeast of Bishop, at an elevation of . The population was 1,756 at the 2010 census, up from 1,35 ...

. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Shlenker had three children. He and his first wife, Marti, divorced in 1990. He later married his second wife, Denise. Shlenker died of heart failure at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

on April 23, 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shlenker, Sidney 1936 births 2003 deaths People from Monroe, Louisiana Denver Nuggets owners Houston Rockets personnel Houston Rockets owners Houston Astros executives People with paraplegia St. John's School (Texas) alumni