VGK’s New Business Prez Wants To Upgrade Medical Facilities, Build New Sheets Of Ice, Consider Sports Academy, Centralize Operations, Increase Links Between Foley’s Wineries/Hotels And Sports Properties
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — At 51, John Penhollow has come full circle when it comes to working for sports team owners who have intense entrepreneurial streaks.
Now three months on the job as the Vegas Golden Knights’ new president of business operations, Penhollow remembers the days of working under former Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga in South Florida two decades ago when Penhollow worked as the NFL Dolphins manager of marketing partnerships for four years, 2003-07. Huizenga co-founded the Waste Management garbage pickup service and car retailer AutoNation and built Blockbuster video rental chain besides launching the MLB Marlins and NHL Panthers.
Now Penhollow’s new boss is VGK owner Bill Foley, a former West Point graduate whose down-to-earth humility is matched by his thirst for entrepreneurial creations. Huizenga, who died in 2018 at age 80, was a different personality than Foley, who turns 81 in two months. But both shared the common trait of enjoying living the life of habitual deal makers with business interests in varied categories.
It’s Penhollow’s daunting challenge to continue expanding the Golden Knights’ financial and developmental footprint in a growing competitive sports market while building the business infrastructure to link up Foley’s wineries and lodging businesses with the VGK owner’s growing network of international soccer teams. Foley also owns other sports properties here in the Las Vegas market like the Henderson Silver Knights, the VGK’s feeder minor league team, and the Indoor Football League Knight Hawks. Both play in the Foley-built Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson.
A Jamestown, NY native in New York state’s far northwest corner, Penhollow came to Las Vegas after 12 years at the NFL Minnesota Vikings, where he last worked as chief revenue officer. The married father of three kept an eye on the Golden Knights thanks to his sports-business friendship with Jim “Phil” Frevola, the former VGK chief sales officer who worked with Penhollow back in their Dolphins days more than 20 years ago. Frevola, a key ex-VGK sports exec who helped launch the Vegas franchise in 2017, is the president of business operations of the Foley-owned AFC Bournemouth soccer team in England’s Premier League.
Penhollow succeeds former VGK team president Kerry Bubolz, the franchise’s first president who became the team’s chief civic affairs and government relations officer in June when news broke of Foley hiring Penhollow. Then four months later in October, Bubolz told LVSportsBiz.com that he had resigned. Bubolz began his job under Foley in Oct. 2016.
“Kerry did a tremendous job from day one,” Penhollow said in a one-on-one interview at the Foley-owned MacKenzie River Pizza restaurant inside City National Arena, the VGK training center in Summerlin. “He set a really high bar.”
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Penhollow may have inherited a well-oiled business machine that sells out T-Mobile Arena, but he told LVSportsBiz.com there’s room to grow the Golden Knights brand while also working on facility and venue development in Southern Nevada.
With the Dolphins, Penhollow worked on getting the team’s NFL stadium improved for a Super Bowl in Feb. 2007. While working for the New York Yankees as director of corporate sales and sponsorships for three years, Penhollow was involved in the opening of new Yankee Stadium in 2009. While working with the Vikings, he worked on the opening of the football team’s new stadium in 2016 — about two months after T-Mobile Arena opened here just off the Strip.
He outlined some general aims and issues that he expects to work on here in Las Vegas.
Penhollow said Las Vegas needs four to eight more sheets of ice to continue growing hockey in the desert.
“You have to have access” to ice, said Penhollow, a hockey dad. “You can play basketball at most parks. You need an open grass field for football. Hockey’s the one that you have to have facilities.”
Penhollow also touched on an intriguing concept of creating a sports academy where athletes can train for everything from lacrosse to hockey, especially now that Nevada has sanctioned lacrosse as a high school varsity sport. Las Vegas’ professional lacrosse team, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, plays at the Foley-owned Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson.
He would also like to beef up broadcast studios at the VGK training center and even use it for educational purposes for UNLV and high school students when the broadcast studio is not being used by the Knights.
Penhollow knows that Foley wants to pursue a $300 million facelift of T-Mobile Arena to potentially accommodate an NBA team. But an NBA franchise fee would likely run in the billions of dollars, with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver looking more interested in the NBA expanding in Europe before launching new franchises in domestic cities like Las Vegas and Seattle. So it’s the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in July every year for now.
While Foley has a 6,000-fan arena in Henderson, Penhollow supports the idea of moving staff from Lee’s Family Forum to the VGK HQ in Summerlin where business, entertainment and venue staffers can collaborate on projects and coach other workers.
He also wants to improve the Golden Knights’ training facilities with better health, wellness and physical therapy resources. He recalled VGK President of Hockey Operations George McPhee and General Manager Kelly McCrimmon visiting the Vikings’ training center in Eagan, Minnesota in 2021. Let’s just say McPhee and McCrimmon came away impressed.
Penhollow would like a medical partner for the VGK training facility and noted wellness facilities can be a lure to sign players.
“It gives credibility to athletes,” he said. “Free agents know medical facilities could extend a career.”
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Penhollow is playing solo-dad here in Summerlin with a 15-year-old son, Walker, a freshman at Bishop Gorman while his 17-year-old daughter, Scarlett, a high school senior, is with his wife, Meredith, back in Minnesota. The couple also has a 20-year-old daughter, Grace, at the University of Southern California. He’s renting a home in Summerlin for now.
He’s still getting to know stakeholders and partners in the Las Vegas market and has enjoyed seeing the VGK fans at team practices. He noted fans never watch an NFL team go through drills in practices except during the preseason summer training camp.
“There will be 300, 400, 500 people watching (VGK) practice,” he said. “Is this for real?”
The Vegas Golden Knights host the Colorado Avalanche Friday at 1 PM in the Nevada Day hockey game.
PSA
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