'This is about pride:' Peladeau purchases Montreal Alouettes from CFL

For Pierre Karl Peladeau, acquiring the Montreal Alouettes is not a business transaction but a labour of love. The Montreal native, who is reportedly worth US$1.9 billion, reached a deal to buy the Canadian Football League team from the league on Friday.

For Pierre Karl Peladeau, acquiring the Montreal Alouettes is not a business transaction but a labour of love.

The Montreal native, who is reportedly worth US$1.9 billion, reached a deal to buy the Canadian Football League team from the league on Friday.

While the terms of the sale remained confidential, part of an agreement with the team's former owners, Peladeau said that he needed to sign "not a small cheque."

"This is not a business operation, this is about pride," Peladeau said in his introductory press conference at Olympic Stadium. "The Alouettes have gone through a period of instability for a certain amount of time and my engagement is for the long-term.

"We will do what is necessary to make sure that our fans keep being proud of their team, its investment in the community and to bring us success once again."

CFL commissioner Randy Ambroise called Peladeau's acquisition of the team "the beginning of a wonderful new era" and a "win-win" for his league. He added that approximately 10 groups were interested in acquiring the Alouettes, but Peladeau's passion to and the possibility to have local ownership in Montreal tipped the scales for him and the CFL governors.

The 61-year-old Peladeau becomes the first local Alouettes owner in the current iteration of the franchise and first since Leo Dandurand founded the original Alouettes in 1946.