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Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The news on Tuesday that The Pittsburgh Penguins are coming up for sale Boston-based holding company Fenway Sports Group LLC should not be alerted to Penguins fans. This is not a situation for Jim Balsille, and Pensi doesn’t have to worry about moving.
This deal is about money and getting into the NHL by any means.
The cost of reported sales for the franchise could be as high as $ 850 million; in a recent Sportico.com article, the Penguins were worth $ 845 million; and the cost of the latest NHL expansion series (in Seattle) was about $ 650 million. The team price is not falling. It is likely to continue to rise alongside three other major sports in North America. And when the opportunity to buy in the league arose, Fenway Sports seized it.
John W. Henry, the principal owner of Fenway Sports Group, has assets of approximately $ 3.6 billion. Forbes. His FSG company has a majority and / or full ownership of Major League Baseball Boston Red Sox. Boston Globe newspaper, the English Premier League Liverpool FC football team and the New England Sports Network, among other teams and sports leagues.
Henry is not some joker or fast sports beginner who just wants to turn a commodity. He has been involved in the Red Sox’s greatest successes today, including four World Series championships. He found a way to save Boston’s iconic Fenway Park from a devastating ball. He was the owner when the Liverpool football team won the UEFA Champions League in 2018-19 and when Liverpool won the Premier League in 2019-20. He has grown virtually everything he touches into a functioning operation. Even NBA superstar LeBron James wants to work with him; James is a minority shareholder in FSG and his investment in the company has grown significantly.
However, Henry has not been perfect; The acquisition of FSG in Liverpool included a plan to create a European Super League that would eliminate relegation and rise in favor of the NFL / NHL / MLB franchise model. It was a huge PR mistake that almost immediately deserved the wrath of football enthusiasts, and eventually the FSG pulled the concept out. Henry apologized for it in person. At least you have to give Wilson recognition that the European Super League was poison to his team’s customers and the sport in general. There are many owners in every sport who may have dug into their boots and insisted on wanting to act. Henry heard the fans and took action to satisfy them. It is a good thing.
The Penguins team, acquired by FSG, is on the verge of franchising reconstruction; Superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are now 34 and 35 years old. When these two decide to hang their skates and retire, it is completely impossible to replace their particular combination of skills and determination. Pens still needs a couple of franchisees to keep up with the highly competitive Metropolitan division. The only way to get these players, without a crazy one-sided trade, is with the NHL draft system. The probability is that Pittsburgh is not as lucky as they chose Crosby as the overall entity first and Malkin as second (in various sketches). If they get even one new franchise superstar, it’s a big contradiction against them.
So all Wilson and FSG can do right now is continue to pay and retain their current talent and get GM Ron Hextall to rebuild on the fly. Don’t wait for coaching or leadership changes after selling pens. Wilson has no history as a missing owner, and the current administration has been in the job for less than a year. It is much more likely that the FSG will leave things exactly as they are.
It’s kind of sad to see this sale as it takes the current majority owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle out of control of the team’s financial controls. Lemieux and Burkle found ways to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh and win three Stanley Cup championships as co-owners. Although they needed luck to do so, Lemieux and Burkle provided.
Now they leave the final control of the team to the FSG. (Although there were rumors that Lemieux may retain a small stake in Pens and continue his current role in managing the team.) It is the end of an era, and it may take some time for the Penguins to be a Cup challenger at the same level. has been for years. But they seem to be in good hands with the FSG. It is unlikely that the company will focus on cutting costs and freezing the team without spending a pay cap. Wilson has been successful in his team investments because he is good at delegating to experienced expert team builders in areas where he has little or no experience and because he lets them do their job.
This is what comes to the Penguins after the sale is made official. Pen fans should be relieved about this news. It could have been much worse. It could have been a low money-making transaction, but it is not. It is more than likely to be a longer-term investment. And owning an FSG company worth $ 7.35 billion cannot be considered a bad thing. Hextall and team leader Brian Burke can do their job the same way they did before sales rumors appeared.
Checks cost someone new, but otherwise the pens are in full swing. Mario Era is coming to an end, and the challenge for Wilson and the FSG is to capture magic in the form of a few dazzling generations of players, as Pittsburgh has done in the Crosby / Malk era. It will probably take a couple of steps backwards to finally get back to the juicy part of the competition cycle, and it will probably require a bit of luck as well. But strange things have happened, and we could see the Penguins coming back sooner or later as real Cup nominees.
The good news is that they will be owned by a company that can pay big bills. It is now up to the FSG to prove that it can win hockey at the highest level. Its history suggests that it can.
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