Bay Area tech investor Bill Chisholm has agreed to purchase the Boston Celtics for a record $6.1 billion — the most ever paid for any North American sports franchise, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN and confirmed by the Grousbeck family and the Boston Basketball Partners (the sellers).
The sale breaks the record of $6 billion paid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders. The previous record price for an NBA franchise is $4 billion (what Mat Ishbia paid for the Phoenix Suns).
“Growing up on the North Shore and attending college in New England, I have been a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life,” Chisholm said in a released statement. “I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston – the role the team plays in the community is different than any other city in the country. I also understand that there is a responsibility as a leader of the organization to the people of Boston, and I am up for this challenge.”
“Bill is a terrific person and a true Celtics fan, born and raised here in the Boston area,” team governor Wyc Grousbeck said. “His love for the team and the city of Boston, along with his chemistry with the rest of the Celtics leadership, make him a natural choice to be the next Governor and controlling owner of the team. I know he appreciates the importance of the Celtics and burns with a passion to win on the court while being totally committed to the community. Quite simply, he wants to be a great owner. He has asked me to run the team as CEO and Governor for the first three years, and stay on as his partner, and I am glad to do so.”
The sale still needs to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors (the other owners) but is expected to go through.
Chisholm is purchasing a championship team — Boston won the NBA title a season ago and is among the favorites to win this season. The team is set up to contend for seasons to come, but it’s going to get very expensive for ownership to keep the team at that level.
The Celtics were put up for sale last summer by the majority owner Grousbeck family, which had a controlling interest in the Boston Basketball Partners, a group of investors who owned the team. Wyc Grousbeck is the face and team governor, but his father, Irving Grousbeck, 90, was the largest single owner in the family (about 20% of the team) and reportedly had pushed for the sale.
The Grousbecks surprised the NBA last July with the announcement they were selling a 51% interest in the team and want to do so in phases, starting now and running until 2028, with Wyc Grousbeck remaining the team’s governor until then. Whether Chisolm or the NBA — which just saw a messy sale of the Milwaukee Bucks to Mark Lore and Alex Rodriguez in part because of a dragged-out sale — will want this sale to close sooner remains to be seen.
Chisholm is the managing partner of Symphony Technology Group (STG), a San Francisco-based private equity firm that invests in “market leaders across the mid-market software and software-enabled tech services landscape,” according to its website. RSA and SurveyMonkey are among the better-known companies in the STG portfolio.
The NBA was hoping for a $6 billion or higher price tag for the sale because it will impact the buy-in price for expansion, if the NBA still plans to continue down that road. The Grousbeck and partners purchased the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million.
Beyond the purchase price, owning Celtics could be very expensive, both on and off the court, in the coming years.
On the court, keeping the Celtics’ championship core together will send the team deep into the tax apron. Jaylen Brown’s new max contract kicked in this season, and next season Jayson Tatum’s already signed max contract begins (2025-26), plus next season there is $32.4 million to Jrue Holiday, $30.7 million for Kristaps Porzingis, $28.7 million for Derrick White and dealing with free agents like Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Payroll and taxes are expected to come out to $252 million for the Celtics this season (fourth most in the league), and that is expected to balloon up to more than $450 million for the 2025-26 season (when the repeater tax kicks in with a vengeance).
Off the court, the Celtics don’t own TD Garden (it is owned by the same group that owns the NHL’s Boston Bruins). There is speculation that part of the reason Chisholm purchased the team is to use them in a real estate deal to build a new arena (and likely some retail and other infrastructure around it, depending on the exact location).
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