Sport has been Vinik's passion

As a 5-year-old boy growing up in Deal, N.J., Jeff Vinik didn't find himself falling asleep at night to lullabies or counting sheep. Instead, he would sneak a small black-and-white television into bed with him, drifting off to the sound of icing calls during New York Rangers broadcasts.

It was during that time of his life that Vinik first remembers having a love for hockey.

"The passion is in there, it's not something that started, I love the sport," Vinik said. "It's exciting, and it's frustrating to me to some degree that it's such a great sport and yet it doesn't have a bigger following in the U.S. in general. It has a good following, but to me what is more exciting than going to a hockey game? It moves fast, the games are close generally, they are incredible athletes, everything is exciting."

Vinik, 50, is on the verge of taking in that level of excitement on a more permanent basis, and with a much better vantage point, after he reached a deal to become the next owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The agreement to purchase the team from OK Hockey was announced Friday, although Vinik must be approved by the NHL Board of Governors and the deal must close before he can officially take control of the team, a process that could take two to four weeks.

"While the proposed transaction now must proceed through the league's ownership transfer procedures ... it is a positive step for the Tampa Bay franchise and its fans," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but it is believed to be significantly below the reported $204 million that Oren Koules and Len Barrie agreed to pay when they purchased the team in June 2008. Vinik, a successful hedge fund manager based in Boston and a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, is buying the team in full without the need for financing and will be the sole owner of the franchise.

Despite the financial woes the franchise has gone through since the team's inception in 1992, Vinik sees an opportunity to return the franchise to prominence less than six years after having won a Stanley Cup.

"The whole purpose here is to make something great, to win on the ice, to win off the ice, excitement in the community," Vinik said. "It's like an oil tanker, it's hard to turn around, and (Koules has) done some of the heavy lifting in getting the ship turned around in the right direction. And I'm going to do everything I can to keep it going and accelerate the process. ... I am going to put the resources that are necessary to make this a successful organization."

In less than two years under the guidance of OK Hockey, Koules and Barrie squabbled about the direction of the team and how best to run the business. The situation became so volatile, the league had to get involved last June to negotiate a settlement where each co-owner had a 60-day window to buy out the other. After those opportunities expired, the league started working with Vinik in November to gauge his interest.

"I heard about this opportunity down here in Tampa and it was perfect for me, perfect for my family and I felt that it was the exact right opportunity that I was looking for," said Vinik, who started seriously exploring owning a hockey franchise in late 2008. "It's a great community, they have been extremely successful previously, the fans if given the right product and given a terrific organization will respond to it and it will create great community spirit here, which is a goal of mine."

Vinik has no plans to be a hands-on owner. Instead, he will look to put someone in a position to oversee the entire operation, both the building side and the hockey side, and let that person run the business while he enjoys the on-ice action from above. While he has no specific timetable on when these plans will be put into motion, he has an idea of how to make it work.

"The people within (the Lightning organization), I have heard a lot of good things about a lot of them and all they would like right now is hopefully what I will provide, is the passion, the vision and the blueprint for where we are going over the next five to 10 years," Vinik said. "And I think that once everybody gets on board - and hopefully I'll make some smart decisions along the way - that once everybody is on board with it, hopefully it will help elevate what it is we are trying to do."