3:08 pm: Chisholm and Grousbeck still intend to run the Celtics together for the next few years, according to Shelburne, who reports (via Twitter) that Grousbeck is giving up his governor title because he’ll control less than the 15% minimum stake required for the person who holds that position.
10:50 am: When the Grousbeck family agreed to sell the Celtics to William Chisholm, the stated plan was for Wyc Grousbeck to remain in his role as the team’s governor through the 2027/28 season. The expectation was that Grousbeck would give up his position when Chisholm’s group – which is initially buying a 51% stake – purchased the rest of the shares in the franchise in 2028.
However, Grousbeck will no longer retain the governor title following the first stage of the ownership transfer, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania and Ramona Shelburne. According to Charania and Shelburne, Chisholm will immediately become the Celtics’ new governor once his purchase of the team is approved, which is expected to happen very soon.
ESPN’s report doesn’t specify the reason for the change of plans, but it was an unorthodox approach to have Chisholm acquiring majority control of the team while keeping the team’s former majority owner in the top organizational role.
Grousbeck will continue to operate as the Celtics’ CEO and will also serve as an alternate governor once the sale is complete, per Charania and Shelburne.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that a plan to have an NBA owner remain in a prominent position in the organization after he sells the team has fallen through — Mark Cuban was reportedly expected to remain the Mavericks’ top basketball decision-maker after he sold controlling interest in his franchise to the Aldersons and Patrick Dumont, but that didn’t end up happening.
The Lakers announced a similar arrangement when Mark Walter reached an agreement to buy control of the team from the Buss family. The expectation is that Jeanie Buss will stay in her role as governor in Los Angeles for several seasons after Walter assumes control of the franchise.
Given what happened with Cuban and now Grousbeck, we’ll see if that comes to fruition, but it’s worth noting that Walter has been a minority owner in the Lakers for several years and had a preexisting relationship with the Buss family when he agreed to purchase the club, whereas the buyers and sellers in Dallas and Boston hadn’t previously worked together.
Grousbeck will step down as Boston’s governor after holding the position for over two decades. The Grousbeck family bought the Celtics in 2002 and has since helped guide the organization to a pair of championships (in 2008 and 2024). They bought the team for $360MM and sold it at a valuation of $6.1 billion.
Surprise, surprise. Why does the media keep trying to insist people spending billions of dollars on buying teams would be ok with someone else having final say? It will be no different with Buss.
Nor should she
She has proven incompetent
The article explicitly gave a reason why they believe there’s a chance it will be different with Buss
It’s simply another excuse with no ability to enforce it. When the Celtics sale happened people in the media said Wyc would be different because in the agreement language for the sale it was required he stay on as governor. Look how that turned out. He didn’t even last an offseason.
Haha this is hilarious. He knows the future of the franchise is effed…the league is in full business mode and all the brainless pods can’t see it…winning teams lose money while trash teams rake in profits….he played the game and won a championship to get some sucker who thinks winning is profitable to buy…now the new owners are realizing winning creates debt and losses and need to jump through all the hoops to pinch all the pennies.
No one is losing money
Wrong again, Phoenix is having a cash flow problem and I know for a fact, the team in Florida took out a loan to survive the season. You know the season ticket renewals get earlier and earlier every year because they need money to keep flowing
Phoenix made 311M last year. There are two “teams in Florida” both made over 300M last year. link to cnbc.com.
@Mr Bob moose: If you think NBA teams are losing money, I have a bridge to sell you. There’s all sorts of creative accounting that a corporation can use to manipulate their finances. The bottom line is that if any of these teams were losing money, their franchise values wouldn’t continue to skyrocket. The prestige of owning a team is only worth so much. If these teams weren’t cash cows, people wouldn’t be spending hundreds of millions of dollars just to own a portion of them.
How are they making money? It’s a high expense operation. Off the rip, half the revenue goes to the players before taxes. Now you have the other half, or really a 1/3 after taxes to pay for everything else. You have all the staffing. Security, maintenance, advertisers. They spend a lot on advertising and media. Legal teams, they hiring the most expensive lawyers. Medical staffs, they’re hiring the best medical staffs. Scouting. Travel ain’t cheap. Leasing arenas ain’t cheap. Practice facilities ain’t cheap. You know damn well insurance at cheap. They also pay retirement for all former players, that keeps growing every year. They’re also supplementing the WNBA and the GLeague. You think it’s just coincidence that the league is happy to boast about their revenue yoy, yet they haven’t actually reported their profits in over 10 years?….if you think they’re turning a profit a got some ocean front property in ohio I want to sell you!
Only like a hand full of teams actually turn a profit….anyone that isn’t a brainless pod knows this
Thanks, you sure kNoW yOuR sTuFf”
God that’s funny
Oof, keep on drinking that cool-aid from the owners. Like some have said already, if owning a sports team made you lose money, then franchise values wouldn’t be going up and they wouldn’t sell for what they have been selling for.
If Phoenix is actually losing money, look no further than the Durant and Beal trades as for the reasons why. They mortgaged their future to get them, failed. and now they are feeling it.
Yeah, they only made 457M in 23-24 when they won the chip. link to statista.com
And they made 452M last year. link to cnbc.com.
You really know your stuff.
Revenue is not profit. Maybe get a little education.
Here are profits. link to thebiglead.com
Operating income is also not profit
Man, you sure kNoW yOuR sTuFf”
That’s so funny. I love it.
Yeah, I was distracted because of numerous bad vibes on this day, and wasn’t thinking.
Maybe stop being such a dik
Haha what? You came in talking “kNoW yOuR sTuFf” yet didn’t understand the difference between revenue and profit. Maybe you’re the one being such a …..
I like how you did that “”kNoW yOuR sTuFf”
That’s adorable.
Highway Menace, You sure kNoW yOuR sTuFf”
The celtics are going through a transitional time and likely for more than one season.
Whatever Grousbeck builds now – others have to Work with it. Would be dumb to do that.
Retooling with a healthy Tatum for a few more title contending seasons starting 25/26 would have been very different. The celtics Just changed Plans because the Situation changed
NBA and other sports teams don’t typically make money year over year. They usually operate at a loss. What they do is increase the value of the team. Owners eat the losses until they sell. The reason teams are selling after winning a chip is that is when the team is most valuable. A lot of sports teams owners bought the team for a few hundred million, or less, and have now seen that value grow to the billions. Look at the warriors. They won all those chips and have crazy high ticket prices, yet are in debt. The value won’t be realized until they sell, at which point the profit will be in the billions. There is a massive misconception that sports team owners are pocketing hundreds of millions a year.
Only two teams operated at a loss in 23-23. Most pocketed over 100 million a year. Including the Warriors link to conormclaughlin.net. Scroll down for the EBITDA data you enormous windbag.
Not a single team profited 100 mil
Well you said it with confidence so it must be true.
You’re wrong.
Read it again. Scroll down to the EBITDA data Read as slow as you need to. You’re gonna have to spend more than 30 seconds.
Think hard.
“kNoW yOuR sTuFf”
Pretty interesting article. I assume with Ballmer and the money he’s been throwing at the Clippers, that their figure is by design.
I just hope this private equity group doesn’t find some way to bankrupt the Celtics. I mean normal strategy is to drain the assets of the purchased company then let it go bankrupt. Like with Hooters, Joanne Fabrics, etc, etc, etc. I can’t foresee this happening with an NBA team but who knows. Anything and everything goes in this corrupt time.
They won’t. You are correct that strategy is used on some companies, which is gross. That won’t happen here. Revenue is growing, it is a closed league with a salary cap. Quite frankly it is harder to drive it into the ground than it is to just sit back and let the cash flow into your bank account.
Here is an interesting read on how sports has professionalized over the years. Not sure if that is good or bad, but definitely not going to drive teams to bankruptcy. link to archysport.com
I don’t mean operating the business poorly making it fail. Something larger like if all of private equity can’t unload. All, all, not just NBA teams. Of course, this new bill says institutional investors may now invest retirement accounts in private equity so that should push any day of reckoning off.