After a lot of anticipation and speculation, it’s official: John Henry will soon have a professional hockey team in his portfolio.
On Monday, the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League announced that Fenway Sports Group, the sports, entertainment and real estate conglomerate that has Henry as its principal owner, has entered into an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Penguins.
The deal is still subject to approval from the NHL’s Board of Governors but is expected to close before the end of the year. No transaction price was given, but the Penguins are valued at over $800 million.
For Henry and FSG, which already owns the Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club in England’s Premier League and a majority of NESN, it’s a further expansion of what is already one of the most impressive sports empires in professional athletics.
Under the deal, current principal Penguins owners Ron Burkle and former Penguins player and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux, who have been the heads of the franchise since 1999, will remain part of the ownership group.
In a statement, FSG chairman Tom Werner said they will work to continue building on the Penguin’s championship tradition, which includes three Stanley Cups under the leadership of Burkle and Lemieux.
“We are particularly excited to welcome Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle to FSG and have the utmost respect for all they have done to build the Penguins into the perennially successful franchise we know today,” Werner said. “We look forward to working with Mario, Ron and the entire Penguins front office team."
In a statement, Lemieux reflected Werner’s enthusiasm.
"As the Penguins enter a new chapter, I will continue to be as active and engaged with the team as I always have been and look forward to continuing to build on our success with our incoming partners at FSG," Lemieux said. "They have an organizational philosophy that mirrors the approach that worked so well for Ron and me over the past 22 years."
Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College, says the old model of family ownership is fading away as teams have increased in value and that many pro sports owners are reaching out beyond their own leagues to invest in other ventures.
“So it's quite common today to have these very large enterprises run by one or two sports owners that own teams in multiple leagues,” he said.
Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross, says Henry is probably the most diversified big sports owner in the world with teams in multiple major leagues and countries.
Lemieux, who was part of a group that purchased the team in 1999 when it was in deep financial trouble, has been the face of the franchise’s leadership for years, and, according to Matheson, has been a white knight for the city.
But now, Matheson says, there is likely some concern among Pittsburgh fans that the new out-of-town ownership group may not be primarily focused with maintaining the team’s local roots.
"Any time you have someone from out of town come in, you worry about, especially a team you're in a small market like Pittsburgh, are they just buying this franchise with the plan to move it elsewhere as soon as they can?” he said. “And that's always a concern."
Andy Greathouse is a member of Yinz in Boston, a social group for Pittsburgh sports fans in the Boston area. (Think of 'yinz' as a western Pennsylvania synonym for 'y'all.')
Although he pointed out that he doesn't speak for the group, he said that he was upset at first when he heard about the FSG deal, seeing a potential blurring of the lines between his Pittsburgh allegiance and the Boston ownership.
"I don't want to say it's hatred for Boston sports teams, I mean we certainly have a lot of respect for the Boston-based pro teams," he said. "But I've always seen myself and the Yinz in Boston group as being very distinct from the Boston-based groups."
But as he thought about it more and saw the success that FSG has had in other ventures, the more he's started to see the move as a positive for the Penguins.
"I think there is optimism," he said. "I don't think that seven to eight years from now, we're going to be talking about whether or not the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be relocated to, you know, wherever. I think you're going to look at a franchise that has proved to be a good investment for the Fenway Sports Group and hopefully a mutually beneficial relationship for the city of Pittsburgh."
