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Liverpool owner and FSG chief John W Henry.(Image: Photo by James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images)

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group continue to have little interest in selling the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The ownership group is open to selling a passive minority stake in the NHL team, though.

FSG acquired the Penguins in 2021 in a deal that valued the ice hockey franchise at around $900m.



It was the first elite sports team acquisition that the Reds owners had made since they purchased Liverpool in October 2010, having started their sporting portfolio with the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a franchise they still own and operate.

At the start of this year reports in the United States had claimed that FSG were looking to sell off a part of the Penguins, and those reports proved to be correct, with the John W.

Henry-led company confirming their intentions.

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A statement provided to media earlier this year read: “Fenway Sports Group is currently engaged in a process to explore a potential minority investment in the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“The focus is on identifying a small, passive partner, and that is the current framework under discussion with potential investors.”

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But speculation around a full sale has not gone away, with Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux, the former owners of the team who sold it to FSG, understood to be keen on purchasing the franchise back in its entirety, although they would likely have to present a huge offer above market value for that to be a consideration for FSG, and even then it goes against the FSG investment playbook.

The Liverpool owners, who closed on a minority stake sale in Liverpool in 2023 when a small, passive stake was taken by New York-based private equity firm Dynasty Equity, aren’t in the business of selling off sporting assets, with the investment thesis largely around holding, owning well, delivering success which then accretes value for the teams.

There will be an exit point at some stage for all of their teams, but it won’t be coming down the tracks for any of them soon, with the sale talk around Liverpool that ramped up in late 2022 and early 2023 having long since disappeared, with FSG having doubled down on their Liverpool plans by committing more money to transfers than at any point previously during their ownership.

The valuation of the Pittsburgh Penguins, as per the late 2024 Forbes assessment, had the team at $1.75bn, a valuation $850m higher than FSG paid for it less than four years ago.

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Liverpool, purchased for £300m in 2010, is now worth around £4.2bn according to the same publication’s analysis.

The ECHO had sight of an investor presentation sales deck from 2023, produced by a leading fund that had been seeking to bring on board investors for a Liverpool stake, that suggested that the club’s valuation could pass $11bn by the time 2030 arrives, with projected revenues above $1bn per year.

Revenues over the next five years are likely to push the £1bn mark, as they will for a handful of clubs in Europe, but whether valuations continue to ascend to those kinds of highs depends very much on what happens with broadcast rights.


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