Billionaire Buys the Buffalo Sabres

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 2nd 2011 at 7:02PM

Natural-gas billionaire Terry Pegula really loves hockey. The founder and former president of natural-gas firm East Resources Inc., a company which was sold to Royal Dutch Shell Plc in May for $4.9 billion, is spending major money on the sport. Bloomberg reports that in the past few months he donated $88 million to Penn State University (his alma mater) for a new sports arena and women's and men's varsity hockey programs. Now he has bought the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres from former New York gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano and minority owners Larry Quinn and Dan DiPofi.

It's not known how much was spent and the sale must be approved by the NHL's Board of Governors before it is official. It was previously reported by Hockey News that he had signed a letter of intent to purchase the team for $150 million. Pegula is said to be a lifelong fan of the team. The Sabres joined the NHL for the 1970-71 season and have never won the Stanley Cup.

Tags: buffalo sabres, sports team owners, terry pegula, terry pegula sabres