Gordon Gund Gordon Gund ( born October 15 , 1939 ) is the former principal owner of the National Basketball Association ' s Cleveland Cavaliers , a co - owner of the San Jose Sharks NHL team , and remains the CEO of Gund Investment Corporation and a minority owner of the Cavaliers . A native of Cleveland , Ohio , Gund is a member of one of Cleveland ' s more prominent families . He gradually began going blind in the 1960s because of the disease retinitis pigmentosa . By 1970 , Gund was totally blind . As a result , during his tenure as an owner , he has never been able to see a game played by any of his teams . Term as an NHL owner . California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons . Gund ' s brother , George , held a minority interest in the California Golden Seals of the NHL . The Seals had never been able to find success either on the ice or at the box office , and after plans for a proposed new arena in San Francisco were cancelled in 1976 , he convinced majority owner Mel Swig to relocate the franchise from Oakland to the Gunds ' hometown in June of that year . Renamed the Barons after the popular former American Hockey League team , they played at The Coliseum in Richfield , which had been vacated by the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association when they moved to Saint Paul , Minnesota to become the second incarnation of the Minnesota Fighting Saints . The Barons only drew 10 , 000 or more fans in seven out of their 40 home games . They were also troubled by an unfavorable lease with the Coliseum . In January 1977 , Swig hinted the team might not finish the season because of payroll difficulties . The Barons actually missed payroll twice in a row in February , and only a $ 1 . 3 million loan allowed the Barons to finish the season . They finished last in the Adams Division , and Swig sold his interest in the team to the Gunds . The Gunds poured money into the team , and it seemed to make a difference at first . The Barons stunned the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens on November 23 before a boisterous crowd of 12 , 859 . After a brief slump , general manager Harry Howell pulled off several trades in an attempt to make the team tougher . It initially paid off , and the Barons knocked off three of the NHL ' s top teams , the Toronto Maple Leafs , New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres in consecutive games in January 1978 . A few weeks later , a record crowd of 13 , 110 saw the Barons tie the Philadelphia Flyers 2 – 2 . The bottom fell out in February , however , as a 15 - game losing skid knocked the Barons out of playoff contention . Minnesota North Stars . At the end of the 1977 – 78 season , plans to buy the Coliseum outright fell through , and the Barons ' small crowds and continuing struggles placed the franchise ' s viability in serious doubt . Meanwhile , the ownership of the Minnesota North Stars could no longer sustain the team . Since Minnesota was perceived as the more desirable hockey market at the time , NHL President John Ziegler oversaw a merger between the two franchises , with the Gunds assuming ownership of the North Stars , and Minnesota moving into Cleveland ' s position in the Adams Division . Within three seasons , the North Stars would make the Stanley Cup Finals , thanks to the Gunds ' willingness to invest in the team and the addition of a number of talented players , including goaltender Gilles Meloche , from the Barons ' roster After the NHL geographically realigned their divisions in 1981 , placing the North Stars in the rough - and - tumble Norris Division , the Gunds would see attendance drop at the Metropolitan Sports Center while the team struggled on the ice . While there was a strong core of die - hard fans , the team often struggled to sell out its home games . San Jose Sharks . By 1990 , the Gunds had decided on a plan to relocate the franchise to the San Francisco Bay Area , the market they had vacated some 14 years earlier . Ziegler and the league refused to allow this move , but allowed the Gunds to sell the North Stars to Howard Baldwin and granted them an expansion team in the Bay Area , which became the San Jose Sharks . With an expansion roster , the Sharks finished last in the NHL standings in their first two seasons , when they played out of the old Cow Palace , a facility the Seals and the NHL had rejected in 1967 . With the opening of the San Jose Arena in 1993 , however , the Gunds would be able to spend more on the team , and they made waves throughout the NHL with high - profile first - round upsets in the 1994 and 1995 playoffs . While the franchise could not maintain consistent success on the ice , they have enjoyed a high level of popularity , and their home arena is consistently one of the loudest in the NHL . In February 2002 , the Gunds sold the Sharks to a consortium , named San Jose Sports & Entertainment Enterprises .