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New Bolts Owner 'Passionate About His Hockey'

The Associated Press

New Lightning owner Oren Koules has been aggressive since taking control, making changes from the players to the head coach to the front office.

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By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 22, 2008

TAMPA - He got an idea of how intense the National Hockey League background check would be when investigators started grilling him about an incident decades before.

Oren Koules, a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in a previous life, had been involved in a scuffle on the testosterone-addled trading floor and paid a $250 fine. The details were all there, deep in his Permanent Record.

"Why did you kick the guy?" an examiner asked Koules.

Why else?

"Because another guy was holding my arms," he responded.

The answer apparently didn't disqualify Koules from becoming the new principal owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Indeed, it may have served to demonstrate the fire burning beneath the boyish looks, out-of-control hair and occasionally disheveled exterior.

It's a characteristic those in his inner circle repeatedly invoke.

New Lightning coach Barry Melrose: "I love his passion. That's what grabbed me, how much he loves the sport."

Superstar center Vinny Lecavalier: "There's a lot of passion. When he talks about a player, or the team, or he visualizes how it's going to be and he tells you about it, he's just really passionate and you can tell he really cares."

Minority owner and St. Petersburg businessman Craig Sher: "He's unconventional, but nobody gets to his stage in life without being really smart, ambitious and aggressive. He's passionate about his hockey."

Koules dreamed of a career in the NHL, but his efforts on the ice stalled at the minor-league level. He detoured through the Chicago Merc and then, in a stroke of magic, scored big in Hollywood. Now, Oren Koules has made it to the NHL. And that characteristic comes up again, this time out of his own mouth.

"I love hockey. I'm very passionate about it. It's given me a lot. It gave me a lot of life lessons. I'm really excited about this."

Hollywood Calling

In another era, word of investment opportunity in a sports franchise might have traveled through Wall Street. In summer 2007, the call for money spread through Hollywood.

That's where Koules landed in the early 1990s after socking away enough money from his stint at the Chicago Merc to have a go at show business.

"I love the ability to tell a story," Koules said. "Movies shaped a lot of things for me. I liked watching movies, and I thought it would be fun to do. It was. It is."

At age 31, old by Hollywood standards, and without a college degree or high school diploma, he had a hard time finding work. So he opened his own production company.

Koules and his partners had moderate success as executive producers of "John Q," a thriller starring Denzel Washington and Robert Duvall, and "Mrs. Winterbourne," with Shirley MacLaine. Turning to television, he had a smash with "Two and a Half Men," now the top-rated sitcom, starring Charlie Sheen.

In 2003, a script came to Koules and his partners about the bizarre exploits of a serial killer named "Jigsaw."

"We thought it was a really cool story," he said. "They shot a seven-minute video of one of the scenes, and it was really incredible."

A devotee of director David Fincher and a big fan of his cerebral thriller "Se7en," Koules took on what he viewed as a similar project. The film became "Saw," and a cultural phenomenon was born.

"We thought we were making 'Se7en.' The problem is, if we called it a thriller, the kids wouldn't go. So they called it a horror film. 'Saw' is not a horror film," he said.

"Now that it's become successful, they've given it its own: They call it 'torture porn,'" he scoffed. "We saw it as a thriller."

Thriller, torture porn, whatever. Three sequels later, a franchise with profits estimated at more than $400 million helped put Koules in a position to listen when word of the Lightning opportunity surfaced.

An Uneasy Meeting With Fans

The new boss met Lightning corporate sponsors last week during a whirlwind visit to Tampa. If they were taken aback by the jeans, untucked shirt and absence of socks, they didn't show it.

Koules and Lecavalier signed the all-star's contract extension at a news conference before reporters and several hundred season-ticket holders. There was a reception for local politicians, and much hand-shaking and back-slapping.

Koules was admittedly distracted by what was to come - a "town hall" question-and-answer session, open to all fans at the St. Pete Times Forum. "This isn't going to be easy tonight," he said. "Town-hall meetings aren't easy."

Especially when you have just dealt fan favorite Dan Boyle to the San Jose Sharks, and the veteran of the 2004 Stanley Cup championship team was grumbling about being mislead, insulted and threatened by new management.

He knew the question would come, and it did.

"Like anything in life, there's two sides to the story," he told fans after one inquired about the circumstances. "I'm certainly not going to debate that Dan Boyle won a Stanley Cup here. He's a great hockey player, the best puck-moving defenseman in the league.

"To make our team better, to make it better tomorrow, to make it better in the future, to make it better now, we felt this was a move we had to do. We got four great assets back for him and Brad Lukowich. It makes us a better hockey club."

Over the course of his visit, the affable owner also proved adept at responding to not-so-compelling questions posed by a pesky reporter tailing him for a day.

Sports franchise ownership typically implies pretty ostentatious wealth. I mean no offense whatsoever in saying this, but you're not exactly pulling off that look.

It's just who I am. I'm wearing jeans and shoes and a shirt. This is who I am.

And nobody in the organization tries to convince you otherwise, like, "Hey, come on, put on a tie for this thing"?

Well, the good thing about owning something is that nobody can tell you what to do.

Has Charlie Sheen settled down?

No! But you know what? He's 10 1/2 years sober, and it's great for him.

Who has better hair, you or Barrie or Melrose? (Co-owner Len Barrie and new coach Barry Melrose are also legendary for their nontraditional coiffures.)

I do! I don't put any product in. Melrose uses gel. Barrie gets it highlighted every six weeks, with the aluminum and everything. This is natural. Wash and wear.

An Aggressive Start

What prepares a movie mogul for running a professional hockey franchise? Believe it or not, Koules said, the two roles involve a similar skill: Evaluating potential.

"You know what it is?" he said. "It's trusting your guts."

The gut-checks came quick for Koules. He promised to be "shockingly aggressive" in acquiring talent, and quickly made good on that vow. By the end of the first day of the summer free agency period July 1, the Lightning had committed some $60 million to six new players, and the deals have kept coming. Ensuring that Lecavalier stays a lifelong Bolt will cost $85 million.

Despite the two primary owners' hockey experience - Koules with his stint in the minors, and Barrie having enjoyed 14 years in the pros - Koules insisted there will be no meddling from the owners' suite.

"We're smart enough to know that once we give the coach the players, they're his players," Koules said. "It's Barry's team. It really is. It's not a cliche."

Koules said he will look for a Tampa home as soon as he can come up for air. Divorced, he has a 14-year-old son who is a rising star in youth hockey, and he vows to improve opportunities for youngsters to take to the ice here.

He acknowledges that two full-time jobs will take its toll - "Saw V" hits theaters in October - but he can handle both. "I don't have a choice," he said.

When asked by a fan at the town-hall meeting about what he saw in a franchise that spent its first 10 years mired in financial purgatory and is a perennial money-loser, the new owner had a determined reply.

"What we looked at was the same thing we could look at in any of the 30 cities" with NHL teams, he said. "If you win hockey games, people will come. And we're going to win hockey games."

Reporter Jerome R. Stockfisch can be reached at (813) 259-8402 or jstockfisch@tampatrib.com.

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