PITTSBURGH — Mario Lemieux will all the time be one in every of one to Penguins followers. However when it comes to enterprise, he may need some firm.
There isn’t a “on the market” signal sitting atop the roof of PPG Paints Area, but it surely’s changing into more and more clear Fenway Sports activities Group is contemplating promoting the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Or, on the very least, a number of teams within the enterprise world consider the Penguins can be found.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday that the Hoffmann Household, a Chicago-based group that owns the ECHL’s Florida Everblades, is rising as a contender to buy the Penguins. This comes on the heels of quite a few Athletic experiences experiences in June and July {that a} group together with Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle and David Morehouse was concerned about taking management of the Penguins after promoting them to Fenway Sports activities Group in 2021.
Friedman’s article said {that a} potential purchaser would want to spend round $1.75 billion to buy the Penguins.
FSG purchased the Penguins for $900 million in 2021. Attendance figures have dropped for the Penguins ever since, primarily due to the rebuilding on-ice product. (NHL groups make almost half of their enterprise, on common, from ticket gross sales.) Regardless of this, the presumed asking worth is almost twice what the Penguins have been bought for, largely due to the NHL’s impending enlargement. There’s a robust probability that the NHL goes to increase by two groups throughout the subsequent couple of years, and this can flood the NHL with a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars}, significantly enhancing the worth of all NHL groups.
An FSG supply confirmed they consider a sale is coming sooner or later, but in addition that it’s not essentially imminent.
“I might say there’ll most likely be a sale if that worth is met,” the supply, who requested anonymity, stated on Monday afternoon.
The supply stated FSG boasts different enterprise ventures which are extra worthwhile than the Penguins, specifically Liverpool Soccer Membership and the Boston Purple Sox. Ought to a suggestion within the neighborhood of $1.75 billion be thrown at FSG, the supply believes a deal might be struck.
In accordance with Forbes, David Hoffmann, the founder and CEO of Hoffmann Household of Corporations, is worth $2 billion.
Hoffmann is on document saying that he has been concerned about buying an NHL or NBA workforce.
FSG introduced in January that it was on the lookout for a minority possession associate. Since that time, the Boston-based group has maintained that the Penguins will not be on the market, however slightly, an area was out there to hitch the possession group on a minority stage. Sources near the Lemieux group interpreted the January name for minority assist as FSG being keen to place the Penguins up on the market due to declining attendance. The Penguins performed earlier than 91 % capability crowds through the 2024-25 season, just a few seasons faraway from a 15-year sellout streak that ended largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources near the Lemieux group have maintained that the intentions of Lemieux, Burkle and Morehouse could be to purchase the Penguins in full versus being a minority associate with FSG. It’s believed the Hoffmann Household would even be concerned about controlling pursuits of the franchise.
Friedman’s report stated a deal isn’t imminent and that there’s “work to do” if a sale to the Hoffmann Household is to be accomplished.
FSG doesn’t seem like in a rush at hand over controlling curiosity of the Penguins, however there’s a rising crowd of teams within the hockey franchise that has referred to as Pittsburgh its residence since its inception in 1967.
In different information: Mike Rupp, a former Penguins winger who has been a part-time contributor for SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcasts as a shade commentator, informed The Athletic on Monday that he is not going to be concerned with the workforce’s broadcasts transferring ahead. Rupp shared TV shade commentating duties through the previous two seasons with former Penguins Phil Bourque and Colby Armstrong.
(Photograph: Justin Berl / Getty Photographs)
