College Football Hall of Famer Nick Saban and financial partner Joe Agresti have purchased a minority stake in the NHL’s Nashville Predators franchise, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.

Predators chairman and majority owner Bill Haslam, the former Tennessee governor, announced the move on Tuesday, revealing Saban and Agresti joined the Dream Sports Ventures LLC minority ownership group that primarily consists of Nashville season ticket holders and local residents, according to the team’s press release.

“I am really looking forward to having Coach Nick Saban and Joe Agresti as a part of our ownership group,” Haslam said in the release. “Coach is one of the all-time greats in college football history and one of the winningest coaches in all of sports. We are excited to have him join us in our pursuit of championships on the ice in Nashville.”

The 74-year-old Saban and Agresti are longtime partners on several lucrative business ventures, including Dream Motor Group, which owns 10 luxury car dealerships throughout the Southeast, including two in the Nashville area: the Mercedes-Benz of Music City and Prancing Horse of Nashville, a Ferrari dealership purchased in 2022. Saban also co-owns several dealerships in Alabama, including Toyota of Montgomery and Lexus of Montgomery, as well as Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Birmingham and Irondale.

Nick Saban tells Pat McAfee that he ‘loves hockey’

Saban joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show‘ on Thursday, where he discussed joining the Predators minority ownership. The football lifer admitted that he ‘loves hockey’ although he ‘doesn’t know enough about hockey to really coach anyone how to play it’.

“It was an opportunity for me really with Mr. Haslam, Bill Haslam, who we talked about some sports franchise opportunities in the future and this was the first one that came up,” Saban said. “I love hockey. I think hockey’s a great investment. They have a salary cap and it’s a growing sport. I think there’s a lot of interest in the sport and Nashville’s a great city. We have businesses there, so I’m kind of a fan and I look forward to being a part of the team.”

“I think they have the structure there to rebuild this team and I’m excited about being a part of it. I don’t know enough about hockey to really coach anyone how to play it, but I know enough about successful organizations that hopefully can contribute something to the organization in a positive way.”

Agresti and Saban have been partners since 2013, with the Baton Rouge businessman recently becoming a billionaire according to Forbes, which revealed Saban “isn’t far behind, meaning he’s set to because the first billionaire college football coach” in an April article titled The Man Who Will Make Nick Saban A Billionaire. It’s one heck of a financial climb for Saban, who grew up in rural West Virginia as the son of a youth football coach who owned a small service station in tiny Monongah, WV.

On3’s Alex Byington contributed to this article.