On Thursday morning, it was announced that the Boston Celtics would be sold for a record $6.1 billion, the largest sale for a North American sports franchise in history. The previous owners, the Grousbeck family, bought the team in 2002 for $360 million. They’re now selling to Bill Chisolm, a managing partner in Symphony Technology Group for a record number.
Wyc Grousbeck did announce last summer that he intended to sell his majority stake in the team, but the sale happening at the tail end of the 2024-25 season does come as somewhat of a shock. The sale of the most-winning team in NBA history now surpasses the 2023 sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders as the biggest deal for a professional sports team.
Grousbeck originally said last summer that he planned to sell his share of the team. The first part of the deal happened on Thursday, but the sale will officially close in 2028. Grousbeck stated that he will ‘remain as governor of the team until the second closing in 2028,’ continuing to run the team for the next three years.
The group that made the $6.1 billion purchase is led by Bill Chilsolm and is backed by a private equity fund called Sixth Street. Along with Chilsolm and Sixth Street, current Celtics investor Rob Hale and president of Related Companies Bruce Beal are also a part of the buying side of the deal. The new ownership group won’t have full control of the team until 2028 when the final payments are made and the sale is officially completed.
The valuations of American professional sports teams have been increasing in exponential amounts for the past few decades. While many NBA, NFL, and MLB teams were bought for millions of dollars 50 years ago, they are now selling in the billions. The Phoenix Suns were the last NBA team to come under new ownership, as Mat Ishbia bought the team in 2023 for around $4 billion. The Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks were also bought by new ownership in the same year, each selling for about $3.5 billion to the Haslam and Dumont families respectively.
Experts value the Celtics at about $5.6 billion, but the popularity of sports continues to rise with the evolution of social media and streaming. So buying the team for over its expected value doesn’t come as a surprise. In a 2002 purchase for $360 million led by Wyc and Irv Grousbeck, they are now expected to profit more than 16 times their initial investment.
Behind the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers, the Celtics are listed as the fourth-most valuable team in the NBA. Along with a fair share of NFL teams as well as the New York Yankees, the Celtics are one of the most 20 valuable sports franchises in the world. Besides American sports franchises, the only other teams outside of North America that have a larger value than the Celtics are Real Madrid and Manchester United. Even the Los Angeles Dodgers, coming off a World Series with the most notable player in recent baseball memory in Shohei Ohtani, aren’t worth as much as Boston.
The 18 championships won by the Celtics is the third most in North American sports history. With the Yankees’ 27 World Series wins and the Montreal Canadiens’ 24 Stanley Cups being the only teams seeing more success.
At the time of the sale, the Boston Celtics are currently defending a championship run from last year and sit second in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 50-19. The team, led by their two stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, are playing as well as ever, and they have the second-best odds to win the championship this year.
The sale however, could throw a wrench into things, as recent changing ownership in the NBA hasn’t led to on-court success. Since the sale of the Suns, Bucks, and Mavericks, each team has gone from winning a championship or making a Finals run to fighting for a home-court advantage in the playoffs or a playoff spot at large.
As has been seen with all three of those teams, new ownership groups like to shake things up and bring their input on the best way to win. The new ownership in Phoenix and Milwaukee both spent large amounts of money to bring in talent, but it has yet to pay off. For Dallas, their most recent trade of superstar Luka Doncic has left fans calling for another sale of the team in hopes of bringing in an owner who listens to fans and keeps their most popular players.
Time will tell if the Celtics will meet the same fate. However, Boston fans should stay hopeful, as the new majority owner in Chilsolm is a Boston local, and will most likely have a vested interest in keeping the team’s stars and championship aspirations for as long as possible.
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