The Boston Celtics have reset the market on professional sports activities staff valuations.
Earlier Thursday, it was introduced that the storied basketball staff was bought for a document $6.1 billion to Invoice Chisholm, managing companion and co-founder of Symphony Expertise 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 embrace TD Backyard, the Celtics’ residence area, which stays below the possession of the NHL’s Boston Bruins. Nevertheless, the Celtics’ lease on the area extends via 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 ready to supervise the transition and guarantee continuity within the management of the staff.
Chisholm’s Symphony Expertise 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 determine its presence in one of the crucial iconic franchises within the NBA.
This monumental transaction has implications not just for the Celtics but in addition for the broader sports activities trade, because it units a precedent for the potential valuation of future NBA enlargement groups, resembling these in Las Vegas and Seattle.
With Boston’s payroll anticipated to hit a document $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 an entire.
