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News Article: FSG looking for a minority owner

Turin said:
Meh.

Would be cooler if they sold the whole thing.
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"i was a penguins fan during the great fsg era and all i got was this lousy t-shirt"

FunkySeeFunkyDo said:
Whatever happened to Mario? Haven’t seen him for over a year.
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He had a small legal dispute with FSG and basically just f***ed off, i think

triblive.com

Mark Madden: Peace must be made between Fenway Sports Group, Penguins icon Mario Lemieux

On Friday, Fenway Sports Group’s Dave Beeston gave the impression that the new Pittsburgh Penguins ownership was reconciling with the old Penguins ownership, namely franchise legend Mario Lemieux. President of business operations Kevin Acklin said Lemieux had talked directly to FSG. CBS Sports...
triblive.com triblive.com

"Lemieux’s estrangement from FSG stems from a settlement of a lawsuit filed by minority owners, Wildlife Productions L.P., which sued Team Lemieux LLC and FSG to block the sale in December of 2021 after it had alleged its consent rights were ignored in the transaction.

Lemieux and fellow former co-owner Ron Burkle paid legal fees and figured to get more equity in FSG but didn’t. Lemieux reportedly lost between $4 million and $5 million in that transaction but is more greatly upset by how things got handled, the source said."
 
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The reaction and public perception to this insignificant news is fascinating.

I get being unhappy with Dubas and being mad at FSG for the Sullivan contract. And I get not being thrilled with an outside group as owner after years of familiar faces.

But Mario and Burkle basically checked out after the Cups and let this franchise start to deteriorate. And I think people should be more upset with them for the current state of the franchise.
  • It's been widely reported that the Penguins' analytics process was woefully outdated under Rutherford and Hextall, almost all of which occurred under Mario and Burkle's watch except the final year under Hextall and FSG.
  • Mario and Burkle allowed Rutherford to gut the front office. As Fitzgerald, Guerin, Botterill and others left, Rutherford didn't replace them. The scouting department languished at both the pro and amateur levels.
  • Mario and Burkle let Morehouse run the show to the point that it was Morehouse who hired Hextall and Burke. There was never any clarity as to what Burke's role was with the job, while Hextall was just a bad fit.
  • And they allowed the arena development process to stagnate and piss off people in the community with their inaction.
Mario and Burkle won Cups. They saved the franchise in Pittsburgh, and for that they should always be commended. But they really let the franchise start to sag after those victories. We're now seeing a modern ownership group. It's cold. It's distant. But it's fully funded. They're spending to the cap. They're modernizing the arena. They're actually building around the arena finally. And they've upgraded the front office and support staff.

Ultimately it still comes down to making the right hires and the right personnel moves, and the hiring of coaches and GMs will speak the loudest.

But I truly think people should be more upset with Mario and Burkle and how they let the support system around the players start to crumble.
 
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I agree that Mario and Burkle's final years started the degradation. I don't agree with brushing blame for FSG under the rug though. It's like how JR and Hextall f***ed shit up long term. Yeah, that's objectively correct, but it doesn't absolve Dubas' work in continuing the trend.

Mario shrugging and not doing anything about JR and Sullivan after the 2020 play-in sealed the deal on the era more or less, but FSG's handiwork since taking over and the job Hextall and Dubas (and the constant, Sullivan) made sure there wasn't a chance at salvaging things.
 
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As a successful businessman myself, I commend FSG for also being successful businessmen.

Edit: I'll call my golf/cryogenic bath buddies and see if their Silicon Valley VC will invest in the Pens.

Edit 2: Looks like all their money is tied up in two AI programs that are teaching other new slurs.
 
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HandshakeLine said:
Are you cold, distant, and fully funded?

Also, lol DP's description of FSG reads like a Pitchfork review of a German techno record.
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Does the width or my tie or the size of my phone indicate that I play games?

1738035005105.jpeg
 
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DesertedPenguin said:
The reaction and public perception to this insignificant news is fascinating.

I get being unhappy with Dubas and being mad at FSG for the Sullivan contract. And I get not being thrilled with an outside group as owner after years of familiar faces.

But Mario and Burkle basically checked out after the Cups and let this franchise start to deteriorate. And I think people should be more upset with them for the current state of the franchise.
  • It's been widely reported that the Penguins' analytics process was woefully outdated under Rutherford and Hextall, almost all of which occurred under Mario and Burkle's watch except the final year under Hextall and FSG.
  • Mario and Burkle allowed Rutherford to gut the front office. As Fitzgerald, Guerin, Botterill and others left, Rutherford didn't replace them. The scouting department languished at both the pro and amateur levels.
  • Mario and Burkle let Morehouse run the show to the point that it was Morehouse who hired Hextall and Burke. There was never any clarity as to what Burke's role was with the job, while Hextall was just a bad fit.
  • And they allowed the arena development process to stagnate and piss off people in the community with their inaction.
Mario and Burkle won Cups. They saved the franchise in Pittsburgh, and for that they should always be commended. But they really let the franchise start to sag after those victories. We're now seeing a modern ownership group. It's cold. It's distant. But it's fully funded. They're spending to the cap. They're modernizing the arena. They're actually building around the arena finally. And they've upgraded the front office and support staff.

Ultimately it still comes down to making the right hires and the right personnel moves, and the hiring of coaches and GMs will speak the loudest.

But I truly think people should be more upset with Mario and Burkle and how they let the support system around the players start to crumble.
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This might be a bit slanted. I'm not sure how much stock I put into any of this because your first assertion is their analytics process was outdated under Rutherford. I'm going to challenge that pretty hard given they hired Sam Ventura in July 2015. At the time, he was THEE analytics guy. Jason Karmanos was also a guy who appreciated analytics. Rutherford spoke quite about it's importance as well.

I don't know who reported to the contrary, but from July 2015 to 2021 - the Rutherford Era - I'm going to say that is bad reporting, at best. Now once Rutherford left and Hextall took over, I could see that. Hextall didn't strike me as a guy who put much stock into anything other than a gut feeling while on the toilet.
 
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SEALBound said:
This might be a bit slanted. I'm not sure how much stock I put into any of this because your first assertion is their analytics process was outdated under Rutherford. I'm going to challenge that pretty hard given they hired Sam Ventura in July 2015. At the time, he was THEE analytics guy. Jason Karmanos was also a guy who appreciated analytics. Rutherford spoke quite about it's importance as well.

I don't know who reported to the contrary, but from July 2015 to 2021 - the Rutherford Era - I'm going to say that is bad reporting, at best. Now once Rutherford left and Hextall took over, I could see that. Hextall didn't strike me as a guy who put much stock into anything other than a gut feeling while on the toilet.
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Sam Ventura was one guy. He's also been gone for four years. Dubas built an entire department.

There are five listed staff members under the Hockey Research and Development group on the Pens website, and they also have Jonathan Ehrlicman as VP of Hockey Research and Development Strategy.
Various articles have referenced expanding the front office:

It’s been said the Penguins were 10 years behind before Dubas revamped the analytics department, including swiping some numbers folks from Major League Baseball, including Jonathan Erlichman from the Tampa Rays in August 2024 and Wells Oliver from the Padres last December.
pittsburghhockeynow.com

Dubas’s Numbers vs. Reality; A Lot Riding on Next Decisions

The Pittsburgh Penguins were behind the times. After the Penguins and owners Fenway Sports Group hired Kyle Dubas as president of hockey operations and later as general manager, Dubas immediately embarked on a modernization of the front office. It’s been said the Penguins were 10 years behind...
pittsburghhockeynow.com pittsburghhockeynow.com

The Penguins have made ample progress in providing those resources to Dubas and the coaching staff. The Penguins have added to the scouting staff. They've added to the development staff,. They've added to research and analytics, as well as the strength and conditioning departments
www.dkpittsburghsports.com

Tom Werner: Fenway Sports Group 'confident in Kyle Dubas' vision' for Penguins

Fenway Sports Group chairman Tom Werner sat down with Sidney Crosby in March of last season when it looked like the Penguins' playoff hopes were all but dead.
www.dkpittsburghsports.com www.dkpittsburghsports.com

The Ehrlicman hire:

Hiring Wes Clark:
www.nhl.com

Penguins Name Wes Clark Vice President of Player Personnel | Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins have named Wes Clark Vice President of Player Personnel, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas. Clark will oversee the club’s amateur, professional and college/European free agent scouting departments and will report...
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com

It's one thing to have someone with a background in analytics or to be open to it. It's one thing to have someone supporting athlete performance and recovery. It's quite another to have actual departments and resources devoted to those things.
 
Big Friggin Dummy said:
I agree that Mario and Burkle's final years started the degradation. I don't agree with brushing blame for FSG under the rug though. It's like how JR and Hextall f***ed shit up long term. Yeah, that's objectively correct, but it doesn't absolve Dubas' work in continuing the trend.

Mario shrugging and not doing anything about JR and Sullivan after the 2020 play-in sealed the deal on the era more or less, but FSG's handiwork since taking over and the job Hextall and Dubas (and the constant, Sullivan) made sure there wasn't a chance at salvaging things.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's plenty of blame to go around.
 
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