North Carolina had a shot to buy part of the Carolina Hurricanes. It passed.

RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes own a piece of North Carolina’s heart. But North Carolina last year passed on an opportunity last year to own a piece of the Hurricanes.

That’s according to State Treasurer Brad Briner, whose office oversees the North Carolina Retirement Systems, which manages the pension fund for North Carolina state and local government employees.

“It would obviously be cool to own it as a state, as a pension system, but we don't get to consider that as part of our investment philosophy,” Briner revealed Tuesday during a regular meeting of the state’s top executive-branch officials. “We just get to look at economics, and we concluded that while the Canes is an amazing franchise, as a business it didn't meet our risk and return objectives.”

The Hurricanes open the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday night against the Vegas Golden Knights at Lenovo Center. It is the team’s first Cup appearance since 2006. 

And the team’s value has surged since then.

Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon sold a reported 12.5% stake in the franchise at a reported $2.66-billion valuation earlier this year to several different investors, including a former NHL player. He bought 52% of the NHL franchise for $425 million in early 2018 and later took full control.

“Slightly embarrassing as we sit here today,” said Briner, a former Wall Street fund manager who has since focused on balancing risk in the state’s pension plan. In particular, he has sought to put more of the plan’s cash into return-generating investments. 

Passing on the Canes, he said, “reminds me of Yogi Berra's famous quote, and that is, ‘It's tough to make predictions, particularly about the future.’ So here we are today.”

The good news for state pensioners, according to Briner: The state pension fund has $25 billion in investment gains since he took office 17 months ago and now stands at a record $148 billion in assets in the state pension system. The plan ended last year with $127 billion in assets, up 43% from 2017, according to the department.

“We're well on the way to delivering on the promise that we set out: that sophisticated investment management for this state can have profound implications for taxpayers and for the state employees,” Briner said, “even if we don't own the Hurricanes.” 

Briner told WRAL on Tuesday that his office took the opportunity seriously, hiring an advisor and investment bank to look at it. It came as Dundon was purchasing the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers for a reported valuation of $4.25 billion, which Briner said was related to seeking investors in the Hurricanes.

“When someone as successful and talented as Tom [Dundon] comes along and offers to be your partner, you always take it serious,” he said. “It could be that we really missed something great here.”

The pension plan is required to deliver a 6.5% annual return, and Briner is aiming for between 8% and 9%. He described the pension plan as a “lower risk, lower reward” investor.

But Briner said if there is a large-scale investment being made in North Carolina that needs to raise financing, it is a safe bet that his office is looking at, including the Hurricanes, a Major League Baseball franchise or building large office buildings. 

His office had conversations about the MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays before they were sold to a Florida group and said his office will be a part of conversations about a MLB expansion franchise “whenever it is appropriate to do so.”

WRAL State Government Reporter Caroline Yaffa and State Government Editor Jack Hagel contributed to this report.