The Boston Celtics have reset the market on professional sports activities staff valuations.
Earlier Thursday, it was introduced that the storied basketball staff was offered for a report $6.1 billion to Invoice Chisholm, managing companion and co-founder of Symphony Know-how Group. This deal units a brand new benchmark for North American sports activities franchise transactions, surpassing the $6.05 billion sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2023.
Notably, the deal doesn’t embody TD Backyard, the Celtics’ house area, which stays below the possession of the NHL’s Boston Bruins. Nonetheless, the Celtics’ lease on the area extends by way of the 2035–36 season, providing stability for the franchise’s operations.
The Grousbeck household, which bought the Celtics for $360 million in 2002, will retain governance over the staff till the 2027–28 season. Wyc Grousbeck, the present staff governor, is about to supervise the transition and guarantee continuity within the management of the staff.
Chisholm’s Symphony Know-how Group is a non-public fairness agency based mostly in Menlo Park, Calif. This acquisition additional underscores the rising affect of personal fairness in sports activities, because the agency strikes to ascertain its presence in some of the iconic franchises within the NBA.
This monumental transaction has implications not just for the Celtics but additionally for the broader sports activities business, because it units a precedent for the potential valuation of future NBA growth groups, corresponding to these in Las Vegas and Seattle.
With Boston’s payroll anticipated to hit a report $500 million subsequent season, the sale underscores the excessive monetary stakes concerned in skilled sports activities. The Celtics’ new possession can have vital implications for each the staff’s operations and the evolving panorama of the sports activities enterprise as a complete.
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