William Chisholm Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Celtics’ Controlling Stake To Be Sold For $6.1 Billion

March 20th, 2025 at 9:20am CST by Dana Gauruder

9:37am: The new ownership group also includes minority owner Robert Hale, Himmelsbach tweets.

9:20am: The Celtics are being sold to William Chisholm for a valuation of $6.1 billion, a new record for a controlling stake in a North American sports franchise, Scott Soshnick of Sportico reports (via Twitter).

Chisholm is the managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, a California-based private equity firm, Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe reports. Chisholm is a Massachusetts native and lifelong Celtics fan. His involvement in the bidding was first reported last week.

The Celtics’ sale of $6.1 billion surpasses the NFL’s Washington Commanders ($6.05 billion) for the highest sum ever for a North America sports team, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.

Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain governor through the ownership transition. He’ll remain in that role, continuing to oversee the team’s operations, through the 2027/28 season, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets.

The Grousbeck family expected a handful of bids for the franchise during the sales process. The Grousbeck family announced last July 1 that it was putting the team up for sale, just a few weeks after the Celtics won their 18th championship.

The Grousbeck family said then that it intended to sell 51 percent of the team in late 2024 or early 2025. The Grousbeck family is selling the team for estate and family planning considerations.

The sales price is a huge jump from the amount paid by Grousbeck 20-plus years ago. Grousbeck founded and led the group, Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C., which bought the Celtics for $360MM in 2002.

Four Groups Identified As Bidders For Celtics

March 12th, 2025 at 2:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Four prospective ownership groups remain involved in bidding for the Celtics and have taken part in management presentations with the team, according to a report from Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Soshnick of Sportico.

Here are those four groups, per Sportico’s reporting:

Steve Pagliuca‘s group: Pagliuca is a current minority stakeholder in the Celtics who has expressed interest throughout the process in assuming majority control of the franchise. Sportico reported on Tuesday that he was a “near certainty” to be involved in the second round of bidding and was considered by some industry sources to be the frontrunner.
The Friedkin Group: Described by Sportico as “a privately held consortium based in Texas,” The Friedkin Group has holdings that include a pair of soccer clubs, AS Roma in Italy and Everton in the English Premier League. Dan Friedkin, the owner and CEO, is reportedly worth $7.5 billion.
Stan Middleman‘s group: Middleman, the president and CEO of Freedom Mortgage, bought a minority stake in MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies in 2023 and has explored pursuing majority control of other sports franchises, including the Cleveland Guardians and Washington Nationals, according to Sportico.
Bill Chisholm‘s group: Chisholm, whose involvement was first reported by Bloomberg, is the co-founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of Symphony Technology Group, which manages about $10 billion in assets, per Sportico.

The Celtics’ majority ownership group first announced last July that it would be putting control of the franchise up for sale. The plan laid out at that time was to sell a majority share (ie. 51%) of the team in late 2024 or early 2025, with Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck remaining in his current role until the balance of the sale is completed in 2028.

It’s unclear whether or not that’s still the plan, according to Novy-Williams and Soshnick, who note that the messiness of the Timberwolves’ ownership transfer prompted commissioner Adam Silver to suggest that the league may try to avoid sales that play out in multiple stages going forward.

The deadline for potential buyers to submit their initial offers was January 23. A second round of revised bids is reportedly due this Friday.

It’s not yet known whether the four groups involved in the process are fully funded or exactly how much they’re willing to offer for a controlling stake in the defending NBA champions, Novy-Williams and Soshnick write. During the site’s latest round of NBA franchise valuations, Sportico estimated that the Celtics are worth $5.66 billion.