After reports circulated over the weekend that Wayne Gretzky and Steve Nash were planning to own their own sports franchise, an official statement was made on Monday verifying that this was actually the case. The National Lacrosse League announced at a press conference that superstars from the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association had joined forces with Canadian billionaire Joe Tsai to acquire a fresh new team in their league.
There has been no announcement about the franchise's branding or name as of this writing, but I believe this was done on purpose and that information will be drip fed to us in order to help create enthusiasm for the franchise's entry into the NLL.
We don't know how Gretzky or Nash got involved with this project, but it's worth mentioning that Gretzky's son-in-law, two-time PGA major champion and world-renowned golfer Dustin Johnson, is said to have a stake in it as well. Johnson was, of course, a long-time partner of Wayne Gretzky's daughter Paulina Gretzky, so there might very well be a Gretzky family link here.
Nash has extensive experience as a major sports team owner, presently serving as a co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer, and will undoubtedly offer a wealth of knowledge to this transaction. That is not to argue that Gretzky has no experience as a sports team owner, but his experience stretches back to the 1990s when he was a co-owner of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
