Pittsburgh Penguins Sale Advances Amid Criticism

PITTSBURGH, PA — The Pittsburgh Sports & Exhibition Authority has approved the sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the move came with criticism of the outgoing owners.

The authority on Thursday authorized the sale of the Penguins to the Hoffmann Family of Companies from the Fenway Sports Group for $1.7 billion. The move still has to be formally approved by the National Hockey League.

Hoffmann is buying the team for $1.7 billion, after Fenway purchased the team for about $900 million four years ago rfom an ownership group that included for Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux.

SEA officials criticized Fenway for its lack of investment in the community during its brief ownership tenure, as did Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.

“FSG leaves Pittsburgh on a path of broken promises. They alienated allies and fans and wrung every dollar out of a public asset and public land to make a $800 million profit with little investment back into the community and Penguins’ fans," Innamorato said in a statement.

"FSG is able to get away with that because when leases are negotiated, the public is often forced to choose between keeping their team in Pittsburgh or protecting precious tax dollars. We will make every effort to negotiate better leases going forward.

"I welcome the Hoffmann Family as a new ownership group. We’ve had positive initial meetings, and as a new owner I hope they’ll approach the franchise with a spirit of community investment and partnership.”