So, has a hedge-fund manager ever been such a welcome sight? That would be 50-year-old financial maven Jeffrey Vinik of Boston, who just signed a purchase agreement to buy the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning – as well as the St. Pete Times Forum lease and 5 ½ acres around the arena. He’s already cutting paychecks.
It’s believed he paid about $110 million – in cash – for what cost the previous owners, the highly-leveraged OK Hockey, $200 million. Vinik will be the sole owner. His net worth is estimated between $500 million and $800 million.
Sometimes you add by subtracting. At minimum, that’s what just happened to the Lightning. A Harvard MBA with a track record for methodically-researched, investment success replaces the “cowboys,” as ex-Bolts coach John Tortorella dubbed former owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie. Actually, their verbal sparring and their need for payroll advances had forced the NHL into a broker role. Koules and Barrie were the guys who hired Barry Melrose, jettisoned Dan Boyle and Brad Richards and signed Vinny Lecavalier forever for too much. These were the edgy hipsters who had trouble grooming themselves.
Already the team is doing better. The Bolts are in the playoff hunt. Not playing under a cloud of ownership uncertainty had to help. Without stability, the team had no future.
And, yes, Vinik says he’s committed to this franchise, this market and this community. His father lives in Boca Raton, and he plans to relocate his wife and four kids here.
And who knows what else he’ll involve himself with? For what it’s worth, he once funded a wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a birthday present for his wife, Penny.