The Tampa Bay Lightning were once owned by the Mafia. Takashi Okubo, the ghost owner of the team, never showed his face, never watched a game, and may have just used the team to clean dirty money. This is one of the wildest stories in NHL history so grab a beer fellas.
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@Tampa Bay Lightning
49 Comments
Fun story but all of the random clips stitched together makes no sense.
3:53 this is San Francisco lol
Yakuza
Pride FC/K1 said be owned by Yakuza. UFC owned by Fertittas who are directly related to mobsters. Their cousin Tillman is a famous restauranteur. Eventually Pride FC/K1 folded and UFC became premier event. I wonder what kind of under the table deals where going on.
Trump
Go Flames Go 🔥
Taro Tsujimoto was the real owner!
Great job body 👏👏👍!!!😜🤘
You should do a video on Taro Tsuji-moto the fake hockey player the Sabres drafted back in the 70s it’s a pretty weird story as well. Prob not a long story but interesting enough I feel.
Edit: to the creator, sorry for just suggesting another topic without complimenting the great job done on this story. 👍👍 I realize now that’s kind of rude. I suggested that story due to the great job done on this one👏👏
Made a mistake mentioning WHA at the start of this vid.. they had already folded. Sorry fellas my bad
First, the Mafia doesn't exist.
Second, if it did it would be soley a Sicilian organisation.
A "Japanese mafia" is totally ignorant.
The espositos are italian, duh. They could have deliberately crashed the lightning. Italian mob stealing from japanese mob. Who knows
This $50 Million Dollar "Franchise Fee"… that was being "looked for" 😮.. sounds like €√§×¥£ pocket change in today's "Sports $'s"… Especially when A Cat like Shohei Otani gets $50 mill' per "at bat" these days!! Not literally of course.. (for those guys who just love to argue exact amounts, stats, numbers & so forth.. simply for the sake of being right in black & white)
..yet It seems like that's what's become the round'bout starting seasonal MLB salary figure for today's highly overpaid athletes!!! *Aaron Judge excluded
I recall My Uncle, a former MLB Player (70's-80's) making $3 Million a season.. which was.. well, an ASTOUNDING amount for a player of "that time frame".. Today, $50 Million doesn't even pay an athlete's lawn service, let alone be spoken of in terms of a Major Pro Sports Team's "Franchise Fee".. sounds Laff'able!!! Amazing how much salaries have escalated in the last cup'la decades.. Sadly though.. It's STILL the average "Joe Fan" that pays the "ultimate price" and gets "priced out" of His/Her season ticket package's, then completely outta' the seats of His/Her respective team's stadium or arena!!
I recall the slogan "Corporate Rock Sucks!!" concerning Multi-Group Festivals & their outrageous ticket 🎟️ prices in general !! Am I hearing the whispers of "Corporate Sports Sucks!!" getting louder?? Maybe a cup'la more a' those $10-$12 cups a' Beer🍺will induce "the courage" to?? Seems Beer🍺prices… are just fine though!!
🍺😵💫🌀 🤘🏼😌🤨👁️🗨️🪬🧿🦸🏻😳
Dude this channel rocks 🤘
Kind of interesting to see how the lighting had shady beginnings and eventually became one of the best teams in the 2000's..
Do the Eric Lindros sleeping with teammates wife story 😂
Do a video about how the Buffalo Sabres got Alexander Mogilny out from behind the Iron Curtain…
I suggest you do a video of how NHL players in the 50s lived out their post hockey playing days in abject poverty after wealthy owners like “Con” Smyth used them to amass a personal fortune ( as per the docu-drama “Net Worth”).
Remember Bruce McNall ? Gretzky does …
You should do a video about Boots Del Biaggio. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist and NHL minority owner who wanted to buy the Predators but ended up doing jail time due to a huge Ponzi fraud.
The music in your video is suuuuuuuuper fucking annoying fyi
Thank you.
I have been waiting for someone to cover this.
Whenever I mention it to my friends they think I'm crazy.
Good video except for the pussy move of putting John Zeigler's picture in representing the NHL when he had almost 0 to do with that story. He was voted out and Gil Stein voted in in late 91, early 92. Tampa didn't hit the ice until late 92' and Bettman was already involved. I understand that Zeigler, when dealing wit the NHL strike, did a poor job of vetting the expansion buyers, but Gary Bettman in his first 10 years of running the NHL is the standard bearer for that behavior. And he didn't step in until the lawsuit WAY down the line. Pin the blame on the right guy at least, especially considering he's STILL running the NHL.
Cal Gary flames
That’s seriously old time hockey haha
Everything in Florida was built by gangsters. Florida is the state built by cocaine
Great story
lol…from gangsters to cowboys. Until Vinik bought the team, generally a comedy of errors (despite Phil's best efforts). Very thankful for the current ownership. A nice prolog might be how a couple of guys that made a bunch of money with horror movies brought in Barry Melrose to run the team and almost ran it into the ground.
Do a video on the Compuware Little Ceasar's rivalry!!
Subbed you. No AI. Keep it like that
Chuck Okubo
Trouble in Tampa eh? I guess now we know why Martin Gélinas’ GWG in Game 6 to win the cup for Calgary wasn’t counted, or even looked at.
Great story! One detail I would ask is, when Williams bought the Lightning – did he inherit the debt or was that $100mil purchase price just to clear the debts? In other words, did Okubo just write-off the $50mil as sunk cost? Which then begs the questions how much money must have been laundered to make it worth his while!?
Another idea….you can do a story on how a retired assistant coach Craig Berube punched Jeremy Rominick for cheap shot he did several years before……..BTW, I sub, u got good content!!! Genuine with no AI !!!
At least he NHL learned their lesson and never had another embarrassing incident (John Spano) like this.
The Fuckin Show always keeps it entertaining, keep telling these stories! Would love to hear your rendition on the Gretzky/tocchet gambling incident
Incredible that a team that starts out like this 35 years ago and still has had 100x’s more reg season and playoff success then the Leaves in TO. You cant make this shit up
boots fucked an ostrich, allegedly.
The NHL chose this BS instead of Ron Joyce, the billionaire co-founder of Tim Hortons, and Hamilton, Ontario that already had a suitable arena built.
It would have been the most successful NHL expansion franchise …..ever.
The NHL is just as corrupt as this Lightning Ownership was.
Your sources please. Not some hangover.
This reminds me of the fake millionair that bought the islanders. Very different but still very similar with a silly situation with owners
They based the squirtle squad from Pokemon off this guy! and did he end up keeping all the money making them go so far into debt?
So, basically the Yakuza owned my favorite hockey team – – cool 😎 ❤!
Gangsters are the reason that Las Vegas was created & in turn, the reasons why Vegas even has an NHL team….you’re welcome, Golden Knights fans 🤨💯.
most normal nhl story (no fr why does so much crazy shit just casually happen in hockey💀)
the NHL is a joke, most corrupt manipulated league in organized sports. Do you expect them to vet owners??
What about the fraud who bought the islanders and in reality had no money
Damn good story.
Interesting vids bud 👍 keep em coming