The New York Riptide is owned by GF Sports & Entertainment, a subsidiary of private equity firm GF Capital.
The company bid for the New York expansion team and was awarded the franchise in 2019. The ownership group includes Rich Lisk, former manager of the New England Black Wolves.
As GF Capital itself was created as recently as 2015, you may be wondering about its track record in developing successful sporting events.
This article gives a rundown of the company and of the key players involved in the ownership group of the New York Riptide.
Who Are GF Sports?
You’ll see references to both GF Sports and the longer moniker of GF Sports & Entertainment. I’ll use GF Sports in this article because it’s shorter to type!
The company was created in 2015 by GF Capital, a private equity and real estate firm headquartered on 7th Avenue, New York.
The parent company set up GF Sports to invest in two types of ventures:
- established sports that are poised to scale in an existing market
- new sports that are creating a new market
One of the other ventures in the GF Sports stable is an e-sport competition (live video gaming). Of course, this is a new type of sports entertainment.
It’s fair to say that the New York Riptide represents a more established sport in New York.
After all, the New York Saints played in professional box lacrosse leagues for fourteen years from 1989 to 2003. They even played at the Nassau Coliseum, where the Riptide now plays their home matches.
The New York Titans played for three seasons in the NLL from 2006 to 2009 before being relocated to Orlando.
Given that New York lacrosse fans were starved of local box lacrosse for years, it’s easy to understand why creating a new franchise in Long Island was attractive to the investment company.
Other ventures
We’ve mentioned an e-sports venture as another entity in the GF Sports stable.
The company also owns two tennis tournaments: the Atlanta Open and the Dallas Open. Now, that’s an established sport.
So, is there any other new sport that might surprise us? Well, yes. GF Sports backs an event called Wolf Pack Ninjas. This seems to be a competitive assault course for…ninjas.
Actually, I think the competitors are martial artists. Are they allowed use throwing stars to disable their opponents? Perhaps not.
How GF Sports Was Awarded The New York Expansion Team
The GF Sports ownership group is led by Gary Fuhrman, who is a Managing Partner at GF Capital.
In early 2018, he and other partners at GF Capital connected with Nick Sakiewicz, the NLL Commissioner. Sakiewicz spoke to them about how keen the NLL was for a franchise in New York.
At that point, the NLL was hearing proposals from several groups to get the franchise.
Gary Furhman led his company in putting together a detailed business plan which he presented to the NLL board.
One of their key points was that GF Sports already had experience in running big sports tournaments in New York. For example, one of their board members (Josh Ripple) was the Tournament Director of the New York Open.
Of course, another key point was that GF Sports is a subsidiary of a private equity investment firm. That should mean deep pockets!
Their experience and enthusiasm (and perhaps funds) impressed the NLL Commissioner and the other franchise owners. GF Sports was awarded the expansion team.
Rich Lisk, Key Member Of Riptides Ownership Group
It’s fair to say that GF Sports had more experience with tennis than other sports when they set out to create a successful box lacrosse team.
Their solution was to acquire that experience in the form of Rich Lisk.
Lisk joined GF Sports as an Executive Vice President in January 2020.
Before that, Lisk had been General Manager for the New England Black Wolves in the NLL. During his tenure, the Black Wolves made the playoffs four times.
If you’re wondering whatever happened to that particular franchise, check out our article on the changing ownership of the Albany Firewolves.
And Lisk has a sports management history outside of lacrosse. He was General Manager of the Philadelphia Soul, a football team in the Arena Football League (AFL).
He also spent some time as General Manager of the Trenton Titans, a hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League.
Deep Pockets?
Many fans just want to know that the franchise owners can afford to support the annual running costs of a sports venture.
If you’re curious, check out our article on how much players earn at New York Riptide. We discuss several players in some depth while giving the ranges of salaries based on experience.
You can use the current Riptide roster to get a broad picture of the total annual salary costs.
