Jeremy Jacobs will celebrate a half-century of owning the Boston Bruins this year. During that span, the hall of fame builder has made a mark on the sports business world that few can match.
Jeremy Jacobs will celebrate a half-century of owning the Boston Bruins this year. During that span, the hall of fame builder has made a mark on the sports business world that few can match.
The first article on Jeremy Jacobs in The Hockey News came back in 1975, when he and his brothers purchased the Boston Bruins and the famed Boston Garden for $10 million. Like all things Bruins back then, the story also had a lot of Bobby Orr in it, as the iconic defenseman was dealing with knee surgery at the time. Orr’s future with the Bruins was up in the air, as he had one year left on his contract with Boston, but he also had an offer on the table from the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the upstart WHA.
Malpractice by infamous agent Alan Eagleson led to Orr eventually becoming a free agent and signing with Chicago, but 50 years later, both Orr and Jacobs are still synonymous with the Bruins.
This year, Jacobs will celebrate his 50th year as owner of the Bruins, and since that initial investment, he has become one of the most powerful people in hockey, as any avid reader of our Money & Power issue will know. He’s chairman of the NHL board of governors and a trusted voice for commissioner Gary Bettman. And it all began with that $10-million investment.
At the time, Jacobs and brothers Max and Lawrence were heading up Sportsystems Corp., out of their hometown of Buffalo. Jeremy was the principal officer and chief spokesman for the company, which began as a family business in 1915.
Originally called Jacobs Brothers, the firm was founded by Marvin, Charles and Louis Jacobs – Louis being Jeremy’s father. Jacobs Brothers got its start doing concessions for theaters, but back then, the buildings typically closed during the summer months, so the company branched out into ballparks. Their first client was Offermann Stadium (originally called Bison Stadium) in their hometown of Buffalo, but in the ensuing years, the company expanded its reach and was renamed Sportservice. In 1927, the clientele expanded into the major leagues when the Detroit Tigers hired them, and, after that, they began providing food services at major airports as well.
Along with acquiring a racetrack in 1939, the company also got into hockey early, with Louis becoming a part-owner of the AHL’s Syracuse Stars that same year. Eventually, the Stars’ other partners sold their interests, and the team moved into the brand-new Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, where they were rechristened as the Bisons.
Jacobs owned the Bisons until 1955, when he sold them to the NHL’s Black Hawks for $150,000. He wanted to make sure the Bisons were bought by an entity that knew and cared about hockey, and, according to The Hockey News at the time, the sale included a stipulation that should Chicago wish to resell the Bisons, Jacobs would get the first right to repurchase the franchise. He also ensured that no staff would be let go during that first season of Chicago ownership.
The relationships made by the Jacobs family throughout the sports world helped establish them as a serious player in the concessions business. And by the time Jeremy and his brothers bought the Bruins in 1975, they were operating in seven major-league baseball stadiums: Montreal, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago and Milwaukee. The company already employed more than 40,000 people in various industries, including steel processing.
At just 28, Jeremy Jacobs assumed leadership in 1968 after his father’s passing and, eventually, renamed the firm Delaware North, a nod to the intersection where the company’s Buffalo headquarters were located at the time (Delaware Avenue and North Street). Seven years later, he bought the Bruins.
Since then, Delaware North has become a titan in sports hospitality. Along with Boston’s TD Garden – which Jacobs and the company built in 1995 – the firm’s clients include iconic buildings such as Wembley Stadium, Lambeau Field and Busch Stadium. Meanwhile, Jacobs ascended the ladder of power in the NHL, where he has been a trusted resource for Bettman on the board of governors, taking over as chairman from Calgary’s Harley Hotchkiss in 2007. When the league and the NHLPA were locked in labor battles, Jacobs was seen as a hardliner on Bettman’s side, an “old-school” guy who stuck to his guns (counterintuitively, a 2013 article in The Hockey News noted that Jacobs’ dealings with food-service unions were much less acrimonious).
These days, Jacobs can look back at what is about to become a half-century as owner of the Bruins. He got a Stanley Cup ring when Boston triumphed over Vancouver in 2011 and has a seamless succession plan already set up in son Charlie, who was named CEO and alternate governor of the Bruins in 2015. Sons Jerry Jr. and Louis also have co-CEO designations with Delaware North.
Jacobs got the ultimate confirmation of his status within hockey back in 2017, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a builder – though he has noted that nothing will beat the Cup victory six years prior. This season, the Bruins celebrated 100 years in the NHL (though the festivities began last year). Their first game took place on Dec. 1, 1924, against the Montreal Maroons, and this year’s celebrations included the unveiling of a centennial jersey and a Heritage Homecoming Week in October involving more than 50 honored alumni.
It’s incredible to think how much the world has changed since the Jacobs family entered the sporting sphere. Heck, you couldn’t even go to a theater in the summer (air conditioning didn’t become available until the 1930s). But that initial foray into ballpark concessions snowballed into a mega-company that has sprawled over generations and the stewardship of one of sports’ most iconic franchises. While Jacobs isn’t done yet, he can comfortably know that, whenever he decides to step back entirely from his many ventures, he will undoubtedly have made a mark on the city of Boston and the sporting world as a whole. It’s a big year for the Bruins and, by extension, the man who has shepherded them through half of their NHL history.
This article appeared in the Jan. 5, 2025, Money and Power issue of The Hockey News. In this edition, we feature a comprehensive dive into the business side of the hockey world, including a list of the top 100 people of power and influence from the world of hockey for 2025. Additionally, the issue contains features on the Tavares tax case, Q&As with hockey’s biggest powerbrokers and more.
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