Elliotte Friedman Reveals the Steep Price Lemieux Group Must Pay to Buy the Penguins
Photo credit: Breakaway on SI
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that if the Mario Lemieux Group wants to buy the Penguins, it's going to cost them around a whopping $1.8 billion.
The Lemieux ownership group reportedly plans to submit a bid to acquire the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the bid is lower than what Fenway Sports Group is looking for.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were sold last fall for $1.8 billion, and the expectation is that this is the level to which the current ownership of the Penguins would consider the bid.
The Lemieux-Burkle bid to this point has reportedly been much lower than this level, per NHL insider Elliotte Friedman on the '32 Thoughts Podcast'.
Re Lemieux ownership group interest in Penguins: "They're well below what Fenway would want to be the number; the Lightning sold for $1.8B, I gotta think that's where the Penguins would wanna be."
- Elliotte Friedman
- Elliotte Friedman
It'll be front-page stuff for some time, as Mario Lemieux's potential return would create enormous buzz among fans, given how big of a legend he remains within Pittsburgh and how successful he has been for the team as a player.
Fenway Sports Group Isn't too Keen on the Idea of Selling a Majority Stake
There were also rumors to the effect that Fenway Sports Group has been attempting to entice minority ownership bid takers but has been resistant to the idea of a majority share of the franchise going up for sale.
From the talking heads, there would not be principal ownership relinquished by FSG unless there is some sort of phenomenal offer clearly beyond the range of expectations.
So, at this point, there has been nothing of this nature, so there will be no straight sale of the Penguins anytime soon. In the meantime, there will be hearsay as the Lemieux-Burkle group weighs options while FSG holds its ground.
The weeks ahead could be quite entertaining.
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