Vinik completes anticipated sale of shares of Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, in a long-anticipated move, has sold a portion of the hockey team and will step down from day-to-day operations in the coming years.

The team announced the move Thursday, but reports that a sale was in the works had been public — and quietly confirmed — since early August.

The sale was approved by the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors earlier this month.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but earlier reports in U.S. and Canadian publications, which team officials did not dispute at the time, put the team's value at “close to $2 billion.”

The sale is of a portion of the Lightning to a group of investors lead by Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, co-founders and co-CEOs of the New York investment firm Blue Owl Capital.

Arctos Sports Partners, which owns a stake in the team, will also sell of a portion to the new owners and remain a partner.

In a statement announcing the sale, the team says Vinik will maintain control and stay on as governor for the next three years and afterwards remain as an “active ownership partner” of the Lightning.  

Vinik, the mastermind behind the Water Street Tampa development and a hedge fund billionaire, bought the team in 2010 for $170 million. Since then, the Lightning has won two Stanley Cups and has been a perennial powerhouse in the National Hockey League.

Last year Vinik sold his share of Strategic Property Partners, the real estate company behind the $2 billion Water Street development project, saying he has “been actively focused on simplifying my life.”

In Thursday’s statement, Vinik praises Ostrover and Lipschultz calling them “world-class partners who share in our mission of being a community-first organization.”

“Bringing in the right partners, with the right values, and a strong commitment to our culture is the way we ensure lasting success for the Tampa Bay Lightning.”