There are some coaches and players who have trouble walking away. For legendary head coach Nick Saban, that was always a concern. After all, he’s essentially always been part of a team.
Now, Saban is a part of a team again. It was recently announced that Saban, alongside his business partner Joe Agresti, have bought in to become minority owners of the Nashville Predators. Just like that, he’s once again part of a team, helping to overcome a fear that he had prior to retiring.
“This is a great opportunity for us,” Nick Saban said. “Because one of the biggest fears that I had in retiring was I’d been a part of a team since I was nine years old. When I retired, I was no longer part of a team. When Mr. [Bill] Haslam gave us the opportunity to be part of this team, which I’ve always been interested in hockey. It goes back to 10 years at Michigan State when they had tremendous hockey teams, won national championships. I was really good friends with the coach there. We shared ideas. Then, to have the opportunity to be partners with Mr. Haslam, a successful organization with a great brand like the Predators, was really something that was appealing to us and an opportunity we were so excited to be able to take advantage of.”
Nick Saban is known for his football acumen, not necessarily his hockey genius. Still, he’s a proven organizational leader for the Predators.
“I’m no expert in hockey. So, don’t look at me like I’m going to make some huge impact coaching around here, because that’s not going to happen. But I do have a pretty good idea of what it takes to have successful organizations. And one of the reasons that we wanted to partner with the Predators and Mr. Haslam and this organization is they want to be successful. They want to be successful, the people in this town, the fans who support it. We came to a game several years ago when we were in the playoffs here playing the Pittsburgh team,” Saban said.
“And I got killed for wearing Predators stuff because I grew up in West Virginia, and they’re all Pittsburgh fans in everything. So, I got absolutely blasted for being a traitor. I’m not a traitor, and we may have beat Tennessee 16 times, which I’m really proud of, but the only game that I remember is the one we lost.”
Saban may not be from Tennessee, but he does share plenty of connections with Nashville. That’s largely through his financial investments. That includes two luxury car dealerships in the Nashville area and 10 throughout the Southeast.
“Anyway, we’re happy to be here. We’re excited to be here. Dream Sport is something that we created because we wanted to get involved in sports organizations. My partner and I, Joe Agresti, decided that we would make this entity. Absolutely excited about it because we are connected to this town with the businesses that we have. We think Nashville is a great, growing city in the right part of the country for us. And to be a part of the hockey team here is something special,” Saban said. “And we’d love to build it into a championship. So, we’d love to partner with Mr. Haslam on anything that we can do to help this organization be successful.”
The Nashville Predators are currently 15-16-4, which is good for 34 points. That’s good for sixth in the Central Division. It’s tied for 11th overall in the West. So, there is some work to do now that Saban is in the fold.