Boston Celtics bidders have until the end of the week to submit their revised offers for the NBA franchise, according to multiple people familiar with the details.
The next round of bids is due by end of day Friday, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. It’s the next step forward in a sale that many are closely watching as an indication not just of how the market currently values top-tier NBA teams, but also how it values a team that doesn’t own its arena and has only a small stake in its local media partner.
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A handful of groups have been engaged in the process so far, and there could be as many as four bids submitted by the end of the week, one of the people said. Of course, there could also be fewer. One near certainty is that current Celtics minority partner Steve Pagliuca will be among them. Pagliuca hired a pair of banks to assist him in the process, and has been viewed by many in the industry as a front-runner to land the team. The Bain Capital executive is also owner and co-chairman of the Atalanta soccer club in Italy’s Serie A.
A representative for the team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Reps for BDT & MSD and JPMorgan Chase, the two banks retained to run the process, declined to comment.
The current Celtics owners announced their intent to sell last July, less than two weeks after the team won its NBA-record 18th championship. The group’s stated reason was estate planning in the Grousbeck family, which controls the team. Irving Grousbeck is 90 years old, and his son Wyc has run the team for years.
The Grousbecks led a group that bought the team in 2002 for $360 million, and the franchise is now worth $5.66 billion, according to Sportico.
Anything close to that number would top the highest price ever paid for control of an NBA team ($4 billion). That said, modern sports team ownership is also about media and real estate, and the Celtics are a relatively unique property in that regard. They are a tenant in Delaware North-owned TD Garden, meaning the club doesn’t capture the revenue from concerts and other non-NBA live events that have boomed coming out of COVID-19. It also limits revenue from sponsorships and premium seating. The Celtics own 20% of NBC Sports Boston.
The team had gross revenue of $493 million for the 2023-24 season, including $149 million from all ticketing streams and $124 million from the NBA’s distributions.
Wyc Grousbeck has said his family intends to sell the Celtics in two stages—51% now, and the rest in 2028—with the provision that he stays in control until the second transaction closes. The NBA is now dealing with a messy Minnesota Timberwolves sale that played out over multiple stages, and commissioner Adam Silver has said publicly that the league may need to reconsider those types of deals in the future. It’s unclear if that is still the plan as the sale process enters its later stages.
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