As Bill Haslam faced his future with Nashville Predators, the 1995 Atlanta Braves were on his mind

A Ted Turner and Jane Fonda sighting at a baseball game some 27 years ago inspired Bill Haslam — and he didn't even know it.

His son's words that day, though, may have inspired the man set to own a majority stake in the Nashville Predators in the coming years even more.

Haslam and his son Will were attending a 1995 World Series game in Atlanta between the Braves and Cleveland Indians at Fulton County Stadium when father turned to his young boy, a Braves fan, and pointed out Turner, then the team's owner, and Fonda, then his wife and a famous actress, activist and model.

"We were walking into the game and I said to my son, 'Well, that's the guy that owns the Braves,' " Haslam said Thursday during a luncheon with Nashville Predators employees, formally announcing his pending ownership of the franchise. "He looked at me and he goes, 'Dad, nobody owns a baseball team.'

"I was like, 'Well, you're kind of right.' The same thing is true about a hockey team. The best organizations, the community helps."

While he recounted that exchange, Haslam rested in a chair on a stage in the Lexus Lounge in the bowels of Bridgestone Arena, the Nashville Predators' current majority owner, Herb Fritch, doing the same directly to his right.

For subscribers: How Bill Haslam put himself on path to Nashville Predators ownership — and what's ahead

More: Bill Haslam: Nashville Predators' commitment to diversity, inclusion 'not going to change'

More: Nashville Predators owner Herb Fritch assesses state of franchise: 'Good but not great'

Fritch, a Day 1 season ticket holder who helped keep the franchise in Nashville in 2007, said Haslam was one of three people he called when he decided he wanted to sell most of his stake.

"Maybe it's because I don't know very many people," Fritch joked.

What Fritch wanted was to find someone committed to keeping the franchise in Nashville long-term, someone with local ties and a vested interest.

Haslam said it was "easy to say yes" when Fritch called and added that he wouldn't have agreed to such a transitional role in many other instances.

"It was pretty scary (in 2007)," Fritch said. "We were going to lose the franchise. They were starting to sell tickets in (Hamilton, Ontario, where the team was going to move). That's how close it was."

The Predators stayed, of course, and became a fabric of the community.

Among those in attendance Thursday afternoon were Predators coach John Hynes, who recently signed a contract extension, general manager David Poile and CEO Sean Henry.

Captain Roman Josi even stopped by to exchange hellos with his future new boss.

Haslam, who was governor of Tennessee from 2011-19, is the brother of Cleveland Browns owner Jim Haslam. Their father, Jimmy Haslam, founded Pilot Corporation in the 1950s.

At heart, though, Haslam is a sports guy. That made him the perfect choice for Fritch when it came to agreeing to sell him most of his nearly 60% stake in the team, a three-year process that is expected to begin with Haslam buying 9% of Fritch's stake in the coming months and end with Haslam as the team's majority owner by July 2025.

A thought that wasn't even a thought in Haslam's head all those years ago when he saw Turner at that Braves game.

More: David Poile: Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators at impasse as free agency nears

More: Bill Haslam: RNC 'very interested' in bringing its annual convention to Nashville

His son's response, though, stuck with him. The thought resurfaced when he received that phone call from Fritch about six months ago and he began to consider what owning a team might be like.

He knew one thing: Just like being a governor never crossed his mind as a kid, neither did owning a professional sports franchise.

"Both would shock not just 10-year-old Bill Haslam but 40-year-old Bill Haslam," he said.

Haslam's first official day as part of the Predators' ownership group is yet to come. But he said he will benefit in his pending role from his experience as a politician, a discussion he shared with Hynes before taking the stage Thursday.

"It's a public role and so is this," Haslam said. "I talked with John Hynes about that. Everybody has an opinion about you. After that you try to figure out what's the right answer."

Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Saying yes to Nashville Predators was easy for Bill Haslam. Here's why