Stephen Schott

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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.

A resident of the Silicon Valley, Schott attended Bellarmine College Preparatory and Santa Clara University, both of which now bear buildings in his name. 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.

To the public eye, Schott is primarily known for his love of baseball, which he played in his youth. In 1995 he and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the Oakland Athletics, and under their patronage, manager Billy Beane's novel management and player-procurement strategies, Moneyball, allowed the A's to place highly in post-season playoffs on unimaginably small budgets. 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. This was not the end of his public career, however.

In 2003, Santa Clara University began to develop plans to build a new baseball field, allowing their nationally-recognized soccer team unrestricted access to pre-existing Buck Shaw Stadium. The project floundered under lack of funds until Schott donated USD $4 million, over half the stadium's total cost. The resulting facility—the Stephen Schott Stadium — opened April 30, 2005, with a game against Gonzaga University.

Stephen Schott and his wife Pat have three children, including son Stephen Schott Jr. who is slated to take over the Citation Homes business. Reclusive by nature, Schott avoids the public eye, and a true estimate of his total value has not been released.