Nick Saban purchases a stake in an NHL team

“Although I am now retired as a coach, I still possess a competitive nature and a great passion for sports,” Saban said in a statement. “Being involved in a sports team in Nashville has always been a goal and the opportunity to partner in the Predators with a class act like Bill Haslam created the perfect scenario for us. The Preds are a great organization with a fantastic brand, and we are excited to be part of the future success of the franchise.”

This is Saban’s first venture into professional sports ownership. The expectation certainly might have been that he would invest in an NFL team, but the cost of investing in an NHL franchise is much lower. It also lessens the risk of him running into a conflict of interest, which is something he has had to deal with lately.

The Predators are one of the NHL’s rare southern success stories. Though they have missed the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, they developed into one of the sport’s more successful franchises of the 2010s, and even made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017.