Stephen Schott
| Stephen C. Schott | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1939 (age 77–78) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | B.A. Santa Clara University |
| Occupation | real estate developer |
| Known for | former owner of the Oakland Athletics |
| Spouse(s) | Patricia Schott |
| Children | Lisa Schott Stephen E. Schott, Jr. and Kristen Schott |
| Parent(s) | Edgar Schott |
Stephen Schott (born 1939) is a real estate developer and businessman from California, best known for his ten-year co-ownership of the Oakland Athletics.
Schott was born to a Roman Catholic family in Santa Clara, California in 1939. His father was a part-time professor at the Santa Clara University and then worked as an engineer in the public works department for the city of Santa Clara. As a youth, Schott worked in the local fruit orchards and sold prunes from the trees on his father's property. At the age of 16, he began working on road survey crews. He attended the Bellarmine College Preparatory School and then, after qualifying on a partial baseball scholarship, graduated in 1961 from Santa Clara University with a degree in business and management. Both schools now bear buildings in his name (see Stephen Schott Stadium). After school, he joined the Army, and then when he completed his service, he took an accounting job with Ford Motor Company in Milpitas, California. After one year, he took a job with a home builder.
In 1977, he and several partners formed Citation Builders, a real-estate and residence-development company; in 1988 he bought out his partners' shares, reformed the company as a family-run business, Citation Homes Central, and moved it to Santa Clara, California. Despite employing fewer than 25 people, Citation is now one of the largest homebuilders in the state of California, and has been responsible for the construction of over 50,000 individual residences.
In 1995, he and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the Oakland Athletics from the Walter A. Haas, Jr. estate. Under their patronage, general manager Billy Beane's novel management and player-procurement strategies allowed the A's to place highly in post-season playoffs on unimaginably small budgets. Beane's approach to obtaining success within Schott's constraints was documented in Michael Lewis's book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Schott and Hofmann sold the A's to their current owners, a group of Los Angeles real estate developers headed by Lewis Wolff, in 2005.
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