Weird New Jersey Devils History: When George Steinbrenner Tried To Buy The Franchise

In Weird New Jersey Devils History, we look back at the most bizarre occurrences in team history. In this edition, we look at the time George Steinbrenner tried to buy the Devils before they were the Devils.

John McMullen is a hero to the Devils faithful. He’s the man who brought the Colorado Rockies to New Jersey, but another man from the Tr-State Area almost bought it out from under him – New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. His interest led to a couple strange and stressful weeks in the spring of 1982.

Some Background

The Colorado Rockies were hemorrhaging money two years into their stay in Denver. Arthur Imperatore, a trucking magnate who’d later go on to found NY Waterway ferry service, bought the team in the summer of 1978. He planned on moving the team to New Jersey in 1980 upon the opening of a new arena in the Meadowlands.

In 1981, before the move could be completed, Imperatore sold the team to Buffalo TV executive Peter Gilbert. Despite the distance between him and the team, Gilbert pledged to keep the team in Denver. This did not last, and in February of 1982 Gilbert asked the league for permission to move to East Rutherford.

On May 15th of 1982, rumors spread that Gilbert sold them team to investors led by John McMullen. He shot down the rumors but admitted McMullen was a candidate. Not long after this, they came to some kind of agreement over a sale.

That is, until New York Yankees owner Steinbrenner reared his head.

McMullen and Steinbrenner have shared history. Both were significant stockholders in the American Shipbuilding Company. McMullen also owned about 6% the New York Yankees, though records are conflicting whether he was part of Steinbrenner’s group or bought in a year or two later. McMullen sold his shares in 1979 when he bought the Astros.

It was around this time McMullen gave one of the defining quotes about Steinbrenner: “Nothing is more limited than being a limited partner of George’s.”

Steinbrenner Wants In

On May 21st, Steinbrenner met with Gilbert about buying the team. Gilbert called the meeting “very interesting” and was waiting on Steinbrenner to “look further into [buying the team] and get back to me.” By this point, McMullen and co. had a “verbal agreement” to buy the team but not a contract. Gilbert nonetheless said he had an obligation to talk to any interested parties.

When asked why he spoke to Steinbrenner specifically, Gilbert said, ”I cannot tell people, especially people of that stature, that I don’t want to talk with them, especially when they come very well introduced.” He declined to say who introduced him, but the two most likely candidates were Boston Bruins president Paul Mooney and Chicago Blackhawks president Bill Wirtz. The latter was especially likely, because Steinbrenner and Wirtz’s father both had a stake in the Chicago Bulls.

The NHL board of governors were holding meetings at the time about Gilbert’s sale to McMullen’s group. Steinbrenner’s involvement quickly became the talk of the event. Though it was never brought up in an official capacity, he frequently came up during private meetings. The owners were overwhelmingly against him, save Wirtz and Mooney. Steinbrenner bought the Yankees claiming he’d never meddle in day-to-day affairs – everyone knew better by now. Some were also miffed that he was butting his way into a handshake deal.

There were also questions about his motivation for buying the team. Steinbrenner had never shown interest in hockey. His connections to baseball, football, and basketball were well established. Not hockey. The New York Times theorized that he was planning on bundling an NHL team and the Yankees for cable TV distribution. Others thought he was just trying to put his thumb in McMullen’s eye.

On May 26th, Gilbert’s office said that Steinbrenner has stopped talks, explicitly stating “he’s not pursuing anything directly or indirectly with us.” At no point did Steinbrenner make a formal bid to the NHL. To this day, nobody has gone public with what Steinbrenner wanted or why he never followed through with it.

Two days later, the sale as we know it was approved – McMullen’s group bought the Rockies and got the green light to bring them to New Jersey.

Not Done Yet

This wasn’t the last time Steinbrenner tried to get his hands on a hockey team. It wasn’t even the last time he tried to get his hands on the Devils.

When the Tampa Bay Lightning’s expansion bid was falling apart, Steinbrenner was brought in to secure more funding. Phil Esposito, who was spearheading the expansion, found that working with Steinbrenner was a miserable experience. Steinbrenner left shortly after. According to Esposito, Steinbrenner was kicked out by the team’s foreign investors for unprofessional behavior.

Steinbrenner also reportedly looked into buying the New York Islanders in 1997. They were for sale after con artist John Spano’s ownership was nullified.

In 2000, Steinbrenner finally got his hands on the New Jersey Devils. McMullen sold the Devils to YankeesNet for $175 million, nearly six times what he bought it for two decades earlier. Steinbrenner was an unusually hands-off owner for the Devils, at least by his own standards. It was also the start of his relationship with Lou Lamoriello, who’d become his friend and business partner in many endeavors.

It’s impossible to know what the Devils would be like if Steinbrenner bought them. Would his demand for perfection sped up their build, or make them crumble? He almost certainly wouldn’t have hired Lamoriello at the time, so there’s no way they’d be the same team. The only upside to this hypothetical is that there would have been some great Seinfeld scenes with Puddy and Steinbrenner.

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