The Rochester Knighthawks have had several changes of ownership since the team was founded in 1995.
The team was founded by Steve Donner, who was co-owner of the Rochester Americans hockey franchise at the time. He sold the Knighthawks to Curt Styres in 2008 for $5.75 million.
Ten years later, Styres sold the naming rights and intellectual property to Terrance and Kim Pegula. But Styres retained the actual team. How did that work? Read on…
Who Are The Owners Of The Rochester Nighthawks In The NLL?
The Rochester Knighthawks team in the National Lacrosse League is owned by Hockey Western New York LLC, which is part of Pegula Sports and Entertainment.
The parent company is co-owned by husband and wife Terry and Kim Pegula. Terry Pegula built his wealth through gas exploration and fracking.
Terry Pegula, Co-Owner
Terry Pegula studied engineering at Penn State, where he specialized in petroleum and natural gas engineering.
He started a natural gas extract company in 1983, with under ten thousand dollars raised from his circle of friends and family.
His company explored a region that turned out to have deep layers of natural guess. That was a stroke of luck that every gas exploration company longs for.
But exploiting the opportunities take engineering nous and perseverance. Pegula oversaw the development of new fracking processes to bring up the gas.
Royal Dutch Shell eventually purchased some of Pegula’s assets for a cool 4.7 billion dollars. American Energy Partners took other assets for 1.75 billion dollars in 2014.
Pegula retained some of his operations and continued to work within the industry. However, he now had the funds to get into other industries.
Around that time, he said in a business interview that he’d love to own a sports franchise.
But the energy mogul probably wasn’t thinking that it would be a lacrosse team!
Before we look at how he ended up being the co-owner of two box lacrosse teams, let’s take a look at the other half of this partnership.
Kim Pegula, Co-Owner
Kim Pegula was born in South Korea. Her early life saw unfortunate circumstances. She was left abandoned outside a police station in Seoul as a child.
As a young girl, she was adopted by a couple from Rochester, New York. The Kerrrs enrolled their adopted youngest child in school.
Kim Kerr quickly learned English and adapted to a new life. She has often spoken of her happy upbringing.
An American couple wanted to adopt a girl from South Korea and eventually took Kim back to Rochester, New York. The young Kim Kerr quickly learned English and had a happy upbringing.
When she graduated from Houghton University, she wanted a temporary job to raise funds to go traveling. She got an interview for a waitressing job and spent a while at the back of the restaurant waiting for her slot.
A businessman was having lunch and they started chatting. Yes, that was Terry Pegula. He was struck by the young graduate and gave her his business card.
Kim Kerr worked in Pegula’s gas company doing communications and PR for a couple of years. He proposed two years after their fateful meeting.
While Kim was raising their three children, she took more of a back seat from business dealings. However, by the time he had raised large sums of money by selling parts of his company, she was ready to get more involved.
Before The Pegulas Bought The Rochester Nighthawks
The Rochester Nighthawks wasn’t the first lacrosse team acquired by the Pegulas.
He first acquired the Buffalo Bandits, almost as a sideshow to wanting an NHL franchise. It came as the companion team to the Buffalo Sabres.
You can read more in our article on the ownership of the Buffalo Bandits.
Terry Pergula created a new company called Pegula Sports and Entertainment to hold these sporting assets. Eventually, Kim Pergula would become President of Pegula Sports And Entertainment.
The next purchase was also a hockey team, as they acquired the Rochester Americans.
Their next step was to go big. It doesn’t get much bigger than an NFL franchise. But the opportunity was unexpected. It arose from the death of the founder of Buffalo Bills.
The Pegulas bid was approved by the NFL in 2014.
They also briefly owned the Buffalo Beauts. Although they bought the women’s hockey franchise in 2017, they had to divest the franchise two years later.
How A New Team Became The Rochester Knighthawks
Curt Styres had purchased the Rochester Knighthawks in 2008.
Ten years later, Styres announced that he would be setting up a new franchise in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Styres arranged an agreement with the NLL where he would create a new team with his players. If you want to know more about the new franchise, check out our article on ownership of the Halifax Thunderbirds.
However, Styes didn’t keep the intellectual property. In other words, the name of the Knighthawks and all branding associated with it were now up for sale.
Remember, I mentioned that Kim Pegula was raised in Rochester, New York. This may have been a significant influence on what happened next.
The Pegulas purchased the intellectual property in 2019. The NLL also gave them an expansion franchise to let them quickly build a team and enter the NLL under this name.
The new Rochester Knighthawks started afresh as a brand new franchise with just an old name. The previous history and records were passed on to the Halifax team.
However, the “new old” Knighthawks did manage to retain their coach.
How Much Money Do The Owners Have, Anyway?
Many fans of professional sports franchises fret about whether owners will run out of spare cash to splash on vanity projects like a sports team. Or that their business dealings will go south and take all the other operations down too.
But that doesn’t look likely to be a problem for the Pergolas.
Aside from investing in sports, they have also made notable philanthropic donations.
Kim Pergula donated $12 million to Houghton University to upgrade its athletic facilities.
But that was just a fraction of what Terry Pergola donated to Penn State for a new ice hockey complex. The sum involved was over $100 million.
In short, these owners have more than enough to cover the salaries of the Rochester Knighthawks players.
To see the full list of players that the owners support, check out the latest Knighthawks roster.
