By Evan Grant
Rangers beat writer/insider
Dallas Morning News
Photo: Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer
Thomas O. Hicks, who parlayed an early mastery of leveraged buyouts to create one of the world’s first modern professional sports empires, died Saturday in Dallas surrounded by family. He was 79.
Hicks, described by those who knew him as an “eternal optimist” and someone who “dreamed big,” built his fortune by forming private equity groups, starting with Hicks & Haas in 1984 then Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst in 1989, then turned toward his love of sports. He may have made his fortune in business, but he made headlines in Dallas and then the world in sports, first by purchasing the Dallas Stars a year after they arrived from Minneapolis, then adding the Texas Rangers three years later. He eventually added a 50% stake in Liverpool FC of the English Premier League.
He won a Stanley Cup with the Stars in 1999. Until the Mavericks a decade later, it served as the only non-Cowboys league championship won by a major Dallas-based professional sports team.
“Tom was a close friend and a great partner,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. “He dreamed big and watching him bring the Stanley Cup here to Dallas was something that I will always cherish. Tom was a champion for sports and we had the same vision for Arlington – to make it a destination where fans could feel the heartbeat of our teams and our community together.”
He had even bigger dreams of putting Dallas’ “other” pro sports franchises on the same national pedestal as the Cowboys. He shocked baseball by signing Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252 million deal in 2000, negotiated pioneering TV deals for the Stars and Rangers, which he simultaneously held from 1998-2010. He was instrumental in getting the American Airlines Center built, relocating the Rangers’ spring training facility to Surprise, Ariz. and bringing the Double-A Frisco Roughriders to the Metroplex. He was also key in creating the Rangers-Astros rivalry, by demanding the teams play annually in interleague play, a precursor to the Astros joining the AL West.
And ultimately, he tried to expand to a second continent with the stake in Liverpool with dreams of building a glistening new stadium for the club.
Alas, his mistake was making the play just as the global economy hit a downturn, which ultimately led to being unable to service debt and led to the crumbling of the sports group. In the midst of a storybook season, the Rangers were sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2010, denying Hicks the opportunity to be on the stage the first time the Rangers went to the World Series. Liverpool was sold the same year to Fenway Sports Group, chaired by Boston Red Sox owners. The Stars were sold to Tom Gagliardi a year later.
Hicks, however, never lost interest in “his” teams. He was in the stands for the Rangers’ World Series appearances and was key to helping Gagliardi get up to speed on the Stars.
“I am deeply saddened by the passing of Mr. Hicks,” Gaglardi said in a statement. “From day one of my ownership, he was always willing to help me however he could. His advice and insight were invaluable to me as a first-time owner of an NHL team. The entire Stars franchise is indebted to Mr. Hicks, and we are one of the premier teams in the NHL because of his ownership.”
Said Jim Lites, the former Stars president who also served as head of the Hicks Sports Marketing group that included the Rangers, Stars, Liverpool and Mesquite Championship Rodeo: “Mr. Hicks was more than an owner – he was a friend and a visionary that forever changed the Dallas/Fort Worth sports landscape. I am extremely proud of everything that Mr. Hicks enabled us to accomplish during his ownership of the Dallas Stars. He empowered us and the entire organization to push for greatness. The explosion of hockey in the Lone Star State and in the Sun Belt can be directly connected to his ownership of our franchise. I will dearly miss my friend and send my condolences to his entire family.”
Among Hicks’ biggest moves with the Rangers after the Rodriguez signing didn’t pan out was restructuring the management of the club by giving oversight to the then-youngest GM in baseball Jon Daniels and later adding Nolan Ryan as club president to help re-engage fans.
While the Rangers initially struggled under Daniels, they went to back-to-back World Series in 2010-11, immediately after the bankruptcy auction and played past Game 162 in six of seven seasons from 2010-16.
“Tom had vision few do,” Daniels said Sunday. “He wasn’t afraid and was an eternal optimist. He encouraged us all to think big. Tom believed in me when few did, and changed my life. Robyn and I are forever grateful and send our love and sympathies to his family.”
The Rangers issued a statement saying the club was “saddened” by Hicks’ death.
“Mr. Hicks was a committed leader in promoting sports in North Texas. He founded Southwest Sports Group in 1999, a Dallas-based sports entertainment company that encompassed the Rangers, Dallas Stars, and several other properties,” the statement said. “During his tenure as owner, the Rangers located their Double-A team in a new stadium in Frisco, entered into a partnership for a state-of-the-art spring training and baseball complex in Surprise, Arizona, and created consequential media partnerships with LIN Television and Fox Sports to carry the club’s game telecasts.
“The hirings of General Manager Jon Daniels in 2005, manager Ron Washington in 2007, and President Nolan Ryan in 2008 were instrumental in the Rangers winning back-to-back A.L. Championships in 2010 and 2011, the first World Series appearances in franchise history. Mr. Hicks was a passionate and competitive owner and Texas Rangers fan. The club extends its thoughts and prayers to Mr. Hicks’ wife Cinda, his six children and his entire family as they mourn a legendary Texas businessman, philanthropist, and sportsman.”
Before getting into sports ownership, Hicks had built his fortune with leveraged buyouts and merging of companies.
Together with his original partner, Bobby Haas, who died in September 2021, Hicks used his special brand of financial alchemy to spin soft drinks into private equity gold. Among the most notable of those was the Dr Pepper/7Up merger.
He and Haas “were the right two people at the right time in the right market,” Hicks told The Dallas Morning Newsin a 2021 interview, speaking about their five-year partnership in the 1980s. “We had unbelievable success. I will always look back at that with fond memories.”
The role he played in the development of American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Mavericks currently play, was instrumental in helping anchor Uptown as one of the city’s hottest areas, billionaire magnate Ross Perot Jr. told The News in an interview on Sunday.
“That partnership we put together in the 90s to build the arena…truly transformed the city,” said Perot, who also chairs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “And you look at the arena development, the [Goldman Sachs campus under development], and all that activity in uptown, that partnership, we’re still partners, and it survived all these decades, and that was unique.”
“Tom Hicks was a legend in finance who perfected the leveraged buyout and pioneered the ‘buy and build’ strategy by creating one of the world’s largest beverage companies,” said Richard Fisher, former president/CEO of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank. “Best of all, he was a devoted, constant friend who supported me with gusto when I ran for the U.S. Senate, even though we were from different parties. A man is measured by his affection for and unflinching support of family and friends. At this, Tom was a true champion.”
For all the while he was a business tycoon, and influential in areas such as serving on the Board of Regents of the Texas University System and maintaining the largest estate in Dallas, it was with his family where Hicks was most content.
He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Cinda Cree Hicks along with six children, Thomas Jr. (Tommy), Mack, John (Alex), Robert (Bradley), William and Catherine and 14 grandchildren.
“Of everything he accomplished in his remarkable life, Tom Hicks’ most cherished title was ‘Dad’,” his six children said in a statement. No matter the trials and tribulations he faced in life, he was constant in his generosity and love for his family. He remains a guiding force for our family, and we are deeply honored to continue his legacy. Although we are devastated by this loss, we are profoundly grateful to have been his children.”
Business Editor Javier David contributed to this report, which also includes information from the Associated Press.
