Chief Executive Officer
"'You have to be a sports fan to own a professional team today,' Bob Schmertz once said. And that's exactly what Bob Schmertz is- a fan!
He owns the Boston Celtics, 1974 Champions of the National Basketball Association. He's majority owner of the New England Whalers, 1973-74 playoff participants in the World Hockey Association. And now he owns the brand-new New York Stars of the brand-new World Football League. He heads these teams mainly because of the sport involved- not the money. That he's already made, as President and chairman of the Board of Leisure Technology Corporation, the country's leading developer of retirement communities.
In 1952, Bob Schmertz, an ex-used car salesman, borrowed $2,500 to build some one-family homes in Lakewood, New Jersey. Today, after building thousands of private homes, condominiums, industrial and public buildings, Bob Schmertz heads a company big enough to be listed on the American Stock Exchange and has built homes, it has been estimated, for one out of every seven people in Ocean County, New Jersey. Leisure Village on Long Island, New York, and Leisure Towne in Burlington County, New Jersey house over 3,500 retirement citizens. Leisure Technology has also built retirement communities in California, Florida and Illinois, with more planned for Maryland and Massachusetts.
But Bob himself is far from retiring. He's got a new team and a new league to root for. His feeling about the Stars? A typical fan-first reaction: 'Anybody can make money,' says Bob, 'but not everybody can own a team.'"
-1974 New York Stars Press/Radio/TV Guide
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