Jun 28, 2023; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Nashville Predators general manager David Poile during the 2023 NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images
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Dec 26, 2022/vol. 76, issue 08
HERB FRITCH
BY DAVID BOCLAIR
THE CURRENT SEASON marks the start of a notable transition in Nashville. Chairman Herb Fritch has sold a percentage of his majority stake in the franchise to former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. The deal, which the team referred to as a “multi-phased purchase transaction,” will eventually leave Haslam as majority owner. The transition reportedly will be complete ahead of the 2025-26 season.
When the local ownership group bought the team from Craig Leipold in 2007, Fritch took on a 36.7-percent share. He’d later add more shares to become majority owner. In 2019, in a long-planned and peaceful switch, he replaced Tom Cigarran as chairman.
Fritch set out to make this latest move equally easy on all involved. He personally identified “three or four” people he believed had the interest, resources and local ties to take his spot and ensure the club’s long-term success. Eventually, he settled on Haslam, whose personal fortune Forbes placed at $2.6 billion.
Fritch, a season-ticket holder dating all the way back to the Preds’ 1998-99 inaugural season, has kept a low profile throughout his ownership tenure. In fact, he and his wife, Barb, spend the majority of their time at games in their traditional seats rather than the owner’s suite. He has never conducted annual press conferences to offer his thoughts on the state of affairs on the ice. Likewise, while he signed off on coaching changes, he is not the one who spoke publicly about them when they were made.
Fritch made his fortune in the healthcare industry and uses his wealth to indulge his appreciation for wildlife. For more than two decades, he has been licensed to own exotic animals, and his suburban Nashville farm has been home to giraffes, bison, elk, wallabies and some next-level aquariums.
His eventual sale of the Preds will stuff his coffers further. His group bought the franchise for $175 million, and a recent report said the deal with Haslam is based on a current $775-million valuation.
Haslam – whose brother Jimmy owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns – is deeply ingrained in the culture in the state of Tennessee. Bill Haslam served two terms as Tennessee governor – assuming office in 2011 and serving until 2019. His term in the governorship came after he served two terms as mayor of Knoxville, Tenn.
NHL VALUATIONS
$810M
FORBES
$775M
SPORTICO
$800M
ROUSTAN
TOP BUSINESS EXECUTIVE
SEAN HENRY
SEAN HENRY APPLIED TO become the Predators’ CEO in 2009 when the local ownership group sought someone with experience to direct the franchise’s business operations and Bridgestone Arena (then-Sommet Center).
Ultimately, he accepted an offer to be president-COO. He then laid out a plan to make annual improvements and upgrades to the arena. He also reinforced and re-energized the team’s connection to its fan base and increased the club’s focus on community involvement.
On Dec. 1, 2015, he succeeded Jeff Cogen as CEO. Henry has brought a blue-collar, everyman approach to the role – which plays well with the fan base.
More importantly, following the 2018-19 season, Henry’s business plan for the team led to a new 30-year lease with Nashville, which will keep the Predators in Bridgestone Arena until 2049. The deal relieved the city of any financial obligation toward arena maintenance and effectively made the Predators self-sufficient.
GOVERNOR AND ALTERNATE GOVERNORS
HERB FRITCH
ALTERNATE GOVERNORS: Tom Cigarran, Sean Henry, Joey Jacobs, David Poile
TOP HOCKEY EXECUTIVE
DAVID POILE
ALREADY THIS SEASON, DAVID Poile became the first GM in NHL history with 3,000 regular-season games to his credit. A short time later, he became the first to win 1,500 games in that role.
Yet there is no getting around what he has not done. Poile has never won a Stanley Cup. The closest he came was when, in 2017, the Predators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in the Stanley Cup final.
Consistency is the hallmark of Poile’s career. He is a steady hand willing to make big trades, but he also avoids knee-jerk reactions. As the only GM in Predators history, having been hired July 9, 1997, he has had just three coaches head the bench during his tenure. And Poile has made just one in-season coaching change.
All but his last Washington Capitals team (1996-97) reached the playoffs, and Nashville has been to the post-season 15 of the past 18 years. Yet no Stanley Cup.
COMMUNITY INITIATIVE
THE PREDATORS’ MOST substantial community initiative is the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund, which gets players, staff and fans involved to fund research and provides escapes for families dealing with pediatric cancer. Initially, D-man Shea Weber and goalie Pekka Rinne served as the fund’s faces, and “365” was an amalgamation of the numbers they wore in Nashville and a nod to the everyday quest to find a cure.
Created more than a decade ago – under the name Nashville Predators Pediatric Cancer Research Fund – it has donated more than $3.6 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. This season’s fundraising push kicked off in November as part of the greater Hockey Fights Cancer initiative, which means that number will rise by the end of the 2022-23 season.
The franchise also has been involved with the YWCA of Nashville to create Amend Together, a five-year, $500,000 partnership designed to create educational initiatives and support programs dedicated to ending violence against women and girls. The program seeks to create and foster “healthy masculinity” so that men and boys are part of the solution.
Predators CEO Sean Henry serves as an Amend ambassador, which puts him on the front lines of the effort’s planning, fundraising and outreach.
However, franchise leadership demands that community involvement goes beyond simply raising money and distributing grants through the Nashville Predators Foundation or generating goodwill through players’ initiatives. All staff members get paid for 40 hours (or more) of work annually to be involved in service projects outside of the office. Among them are annual staff outings for playground construction and holiday initiatives, but employees are free to choose their own causes to support with their time and energy.
