Maloof Brothers Sell Las Vegas Golden Knights Stake

Posted on: January 11, 2024, 08:30h. 

Last updated on: January 11, 2024, 08:30h.

The Maloof Brothers — George, Gavin, Joe, and Phil — have sold what is believed to be their 30% ownership interest in the Las Vegas Golden Knights to Bill Foley. The billionaire founder of Foley Family Wines has been majority owner and chair of the NHL team since its 2017 inception.

According to a media release from the team, a fifth Maloof sibling, Adrienne, will continue to be a limited partner with the franchise.

“We would like to thank the entire Maloof family for their contributions to the Vegas Golden Knights organization during their tenure as minority owners,” Foley said in a statement. “They were helpful in bringing NHL hockey to Las Vegas and had a belief and commitment to our city as a viable major professional sports market. We wish the family continued success.”

Though always minority owners, the Maloofs started started the puck scooting on the expansion team. After selling the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, which they owned from 1998 until 2013, they met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about bringing hockey to the desert.

Bettman suggested that they meet with Foley, who ended up footing the $500M expansion fee. The Golden Knights played their first game at T-Mobile Arena in 2017.

Not only were the Golden Knights the first major-league sports franchise ever to represent Las Vegas, they were also one of few expansion teams to ever experience immediate success. They reached the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season, 2017-18, and won their first Stanley Cup in 2023 by defeating the Florida Panthers in five games.

Casinos in the Family

Casinos have always loomed as large as sports in the Maloof portfolio. Nearly 30 years ago, the family, which hails from New Mexico, opened the Fiesta Rancho in North Las Vegas.

They sold that property six years later, to Station Casinos, to help finance construction of the Palms. The casino resort’s $275M first phase opened in November 2001, with Station Casinos as a minority owner.

In 2011, after the Great Recession decimated business across Las Vegas, the Palms was sold to Texas Pacific Group and Leonard Green & Partners, with the Maloofs retaining a 2% interest.

Red Rock Resort, Station Casino’s parent company, then purchased Palms for $312M in 2016, selling it for more than double that amount ($650M) to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, its current owner, five years later.