{"id":65954,"date":"2025-12-20T08:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65954\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T08:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:18:13","slug":"pittsburgh-penguins-sold-to-hoffmann-family-for-1-7-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65954\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Penguins Sold to Hoffmann Family for $1.7 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFenway Sports Group<\/a> has reached a definitive agreement to sell the NHL<\/a>\u2019s Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> to the Hoffmann family, the two sides announced Friday. The enterprise value for the team is $1.7 billion, according to someone familiar with the agreement. The deal is subject to approval by the NHL Board of Governors.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Hoffmann is the founder and chairman of the Chicago-based Hoffmann Family of Companies, a family-owned private equity firm comprising 125 global brands that employ over 17,000 employees. Hoffmann made his first fortune as the founder of search firm DHR Global in 1989 and is worth $2 billion, per Forbes.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid\u2019s son, Geoff, is CEO of Hoffmann Family of Companies and will be the team\u2019s governor upon the close of the agreement in 2026. The Hoffmanns bought the ECHL\u2019s Florida Everblades in 2019 from former Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn January, FSG hired Allen & Company and CAA to explore a minority stake in the franchise, but it pivoted to a majority transaction during the course of the year. FSG bought the NHL team in late 2021 for $900 million to bolster its sports portfolio that already included MLB\u2019s Boston Red Sox, the EPL\u2019s Liverpool FC, NASCAR\u2019s RFK Racing and regional sports network NESN.<\/p>\n

\n\tFSG will remain a minority shareholder for a period of time, and NESN will continue to operate the team\u2019s TV home, SportNet Pittsburgh, although the RSN equity transfers to the Hoffmans as part of the deal. The price is a tick lower than last year\u2019s sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> to a group of investors led by Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz at a $1.8 billion valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tNHL franchise values have soared since FSG bought the Pens from an average of $935 million to $2.1 billion in Sportico\u2019s 2025 NHL team valuations<\/a>. But the Pens have stumbled on and off the ice during the past three-plus years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Penguins lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2021-22 and missed the postseason the past three seasons, after 16 straight playoff appearances, including three Stanley Cup titles. After the 2024-25 season, the club fired head coach Mike Sullivan, who had been behind the bench since midway through the 2015-16 title-winning season.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team\u2019s 633-game sellout streak ended just ahead of FSG\u2019s purchase. Last season\u2019s average per-game attendance was 16,667, down 8% from the previous year and the lowest since the 2006-07 season, when the team played at Mellon Arena\u2014PPG Paints Arena opened in 2010. Attendance ranked in the bottom five measured by percentage of the arena capacity filled. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it would shutter its regional sports networks that operated under the AT&T SportsNet banner. That included AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, home to Penguins games. FSG bought the RSN from WBD, but the result was a reduced rights fee for the hockey club.<\/p>\n

\n\tAllen & Company and CAA Evolution served as financial advisors to FSG on the deal. Allen
Overy Shearman Sterling LLP served as legal advisor to FSG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fenway Sports Group has reached a definitive agreement to sell the NHL\u2019s Pittsburgh Penguins to the Hoffmann family,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27405,4843,73,75,74,1067,26108],"class_list":["post-65954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-fenway-sports-group","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-tampa-bay-lightning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}