The Friedkin Group were one of the bidders for the Boston Celtics NBA team last week
Having missed out on acquiring one North American sports team this week, Everton supremo Dan Friedkin is now linked with another. The Friedkin Group (TFG) chief has been earmarked as a bidder for a potential NHL expansion franchise.
Friedkin, whose TFG firm closed on a deal to purchase Everton from Farhad Moshiri in December last year, were one of four bidders for the reigning NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, last week.
The storied basketball team was eventually sold by Wyc Grousbeck to Massachusetts-based private equity executive William Chisholm for a record $6.1billion sum, the highest price ever paid for a US sporting team.
While Friedkin and TFG have Everton and Italian Serie A side AS Roma as sporting assets in a diverse portfolio that includes Toyota car dealerships across the southern states of the US, as well as media and entertainment businesses, they don’t yet have a foothold in the North American sports market, but that could still change in the not too distant future even after missing out on the Celtics.
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On Friday, Bill Daly, deputy commissioner of the NHL, North America’s major ice hockey league, told The Athletic that Friedkin was one of those who had emerged as a strong candidate to acquire the rights to an expansion franchise in Houston, Texas, as and when the NHL decides to expand from its current 32-team structure.
The links to Friedkin, whose personal net worth stands at around $7.5billion according to Forbes, with TFG having annual revenues of some $13billion, are obvious given the strong roots that Friedkin has with Texas, and in particular Houston.
Friedkin is chairman and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, with TFG’s headquarters based in Houston.
The NHL added its 31st and 32nd franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle in 2017 and 2021 for then-record expansion fees of $500 million and $650 million respectively.
The price point for entry into the market should expansion teams be given the green light is likely to be closer to the $1billion mark given the trajectory of the valuations of major league sporting assets in the North America.
There has been no firm indication from the NHL as yet that they are ready to add further franchises, although there is the appetite for more teams on US soil given that seven of the current 32 teams are Canadian.
Houston, due to its market size and a history with hockey that dates back to the Houston Aeros, is seen as one of the most viable locations for when expansion does happen.
ESPN first reported the interest in an expansion franchise by TFG, with Daly telling the US media outlet that the league has met with the group “on a number of occasions about potential interest in a Houston expansion franchise.”
TFG have already made their presence felt at Everton, bringing about managerial change with David Moyes’ appointment, something that has led the club to all but secure their Premier League status, as well as bringing in a new CEO in Angus Kinnear, who arrived from Leeds United earlier this month.
The Everton owners also made significant move to tackle the club’s debt issue that had been seeing them pay huge sums of interest on stadium debt from a variety of lenders.
TFG have been able to negotiate a £350million refinancing package that will save the club tens of millions in interest payments each season, a figure as high as £50million per annum according to some reports.
