Elliotte Friedman is reporting that Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has begun the process of selling the team to Doug Ostrover, CEO of the investment firm Blue Owl Capital. According to Friedman, it is a multi-stage deal that allows Vinik to retain operational control of the organization for “the next several years” as well as an ownership stake that is reported to be “significant”.
Back in 2023, the Lightning sold a minority stake to Arctos Sports Partners that placed a value on the team at about $1.4 billion. Friedman’s article pins the current value of the team at closer to $2 billion in regards to the current deal. No matter what the final price ends up being, Mr. Vinik will realize quite a hefty profit on his initial investment of $170 million when he purchased the team from the OK Hockey Group back in 2010.
According to a Tweet from Tampa Bay Times reporter Eduardo Encina, Mr. Vinik acknowledged the process, referring to it as “discussions to further expand our ownership group of the Tampa Bay Lightning” and he confirmed there will be no changes to the day-to-day operations.
Over the past 14 years, he has been primarily a hands-off owner, allowing his hockey operations team to manage the day-to-day building of one of the most successful teams of the salary cap era while he sat back and wrote the checks. The Lightning have constantly spent up to (and over) the cap which has produced the greatest run of success in franchise history as they’ve collected two Stanley Cup and four conference championships, while making it to the conference finals another three times.
Off the ice, Mr. Vinik has invested heavily in the local area, first as part of Strategic Property Planners, a company that developed multiple acres of downtown Tampa (he sold his stake in 2023) and through the Community Heroes program that has donated $50,000 a game to a local organization in every home game since 2011. The Vinik Family Foundation has also donated over $75 million to “nonprofits working in the areas of education, human services, healthcare, and the arts” according to their website.
This continues a recent trend of upward valuations for NHL franchises. The Arizona Coyotes were sold earlier this summer to Ryan Smith, who paid $1.2 billion, with $1 billion going to Alex Meruelo and the remaining $200 million split among the other owners as a relocation fee which allowed Smith to move the team to Salt Lake City. Last year, Michael Andlauer purchased the Ottawa Senators for about $950 million after selling his stake in the Montreal Canadiens,a sale that placed a valuation of $2.5 billion on the Original Six franchise.
As for Doug Ostrover, he is the co-founder and co-CEO of Blue Owl, which Forbes describes as an “investment firm specializing in private credit with $165 billion in assets under management.” The 62-year-old is from Connecticut and is married with four children. It appears that acquiring a portion of the Lightning is part of an investment plan that Blue Owl has been part of recently. Ostrover, along with co-CEO Marc Lipshcultz, is also listed as a limited partner as part of the ownership group of the Washington Commanders. Dyal Capital, which is linked with Blue Owl, has minority investments in the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings through their HomeCourt fund. More and more private equity firms have been investing in major league franchises over the last decade as they’ve been proven to be enormous investment opportunities.
It is not known at this time how large of an ownership stake Ostrover will acquire, nor how long the process will take. It is possible that they are setting up a path for him to eventually take over the majority ownership from Mr. Vinik, but that might be years down the road. For the time being, it appears things will continue to operate as normal.
