The basketball team’s soon-to-be new lead owner has spent the last few months cobbling together a group of two dozen or so investors
Bill Chisholm (standing) is poised to be the new lead owner of the Boston Celtics after a $6.1 billion deal to purchase the team closes next month. Wyc Grousbeck (middle) has been the face of the team's ownership group, controlled by his family, for the last two decades.
Bill Chisholm (standing) is poised to be the new lead owner of the Boston Celtics after a $6.1 billion deal to purchase the team closes next month. Wyc Grousbeck (middle) has been the face of the team's ownership group, controlled by his family, for the last two decades.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
With the NBA Finals well underway, so is Bill Chisholm’s final push to buy the Boston Celtics.
Chisholm — the North Shore native turned San Francisco-area private equity boss — may have made the headlines with his record-setting $6.1 billion offer in March, but buying one of the premiere franchises in American sports isn’t as simple as writing one giant check.
Chisholm has spent the last few months curating a group of two dozen or so investors, chosen not just for their capital but for their ability to collaborate and offer industry expertise, such as in real estate, according to people briefed on the matter.
As lead owner, Chisholm will be the single biggest shareholder with at least a 15 percent stake, while global steel magnate Aditya Mittal is reportedly investing $1 billion and will eventually serve as alternate governor. Private equity firm Sixth Street is expected to hold roughly a 10 percent stake in the team and be a silent partner, according to a person knowledgeable about the deal. But lots of other people will also have a slice of the team, and that’s where things can get more complicated.
Buying a pro sports team can be fiercely competitive, because these teams so rarely change hands, and it’s often a complex, high-stakes transaction. The Grousbeck family, which has been the lead owner of the Celtics since 2002, [shocked the sports world last July](https://said George Pyne, founder and CEO of Bruin Capital, an investment company focused on sports and media deals. "https://said George Pyne, founder and CEO of Bruin Capital, an investment company focused on sports and media deals.") when it put the team up for sale just two weeks after the C’s clinched an NBA-leading 18th championship. Irv Grousbeck, the 90-year-old patriarch, is driving the sale of the franchise for estate planning purposes.
While each transaction is different, typically a wealthy individual leads a bid and puts together a collection of other well-resourced investors, often successful business titans. Sometimes these people know each other going in; other times they don’t, relying on a constellation of bankers, friends, and others in their networks for introductions.
Chisholm — who cofounded Bay Area private equity firm Symphony Technology Group and has spent most of his adult life on the West Coast — anchored his bid with Sixth Street, another private equity firm that holds stakes in pro sports teams including the San Antonio Spurs and San Francisco Giants. Chisholm’s firm has done other deals with Sixth Street, notably the 2023 acquisition of Burlington video editing software company Avid Technology.
Mittal lives in London, but his family has deep ties to Harvard. He became a Celtics fan through his many visits to Boston since he was a teenager. He and his father, Lakshmi, run ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s biggest steel companies.
From there, other investors with Boston ties joined the club.
New York developer Bruce Beal Jr. got connected to Chisholm through their mutual bankers at Goldman Sachs, according to people briefed on the matter. Beal and Chisholm met for the first time just weeks before the final bid was due. Like Chisholm, Beal — who comes from a prominent Boston real estate family — is a die-hard Celtics fan, and he already owns a piece of a team, the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. And as president of megadeveloper Related Companies, Beal could be quite helpful if the Celtics ever decide to build their own arena.
Meanwhile, Rob Hale, the Granite Telecommunications CEO and a current minority owner in the Grousbeck group, began “hanging around the hoop," as he put it, letting it be known he wanted to be part of the new ownership, too. Like Beal, he met Chisholm late in the game and only got to know him through the sale process.
Rob Hale, founder and CEO of Granite Telecommunications, in 2022.
Rob Hale, founder and CEO of Granite Telecommunications, in 2022.Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe
Beal and Hale were relatively close to the front of the line. When Chisholm’s winning bid was announced on March 20, they and Sixth Street were the only ones listed as part of the investment group. That’s when Chisholm had to get busy recruiting additional backers, especially since the NBA caps how much of a team can be owned by private equity firms.
Chisholm has offered current Celtics shareholders the opportunity to stay on and many are, including Wyc Grousbeck, Paul Edgerley, and John Connaughton.
One name still to be determined? Steve Pagliuca. He’s the current number two, who lost his bid to buy the team.
Let’s hope Pagliuca remains part of the parquet family. He was one of the first investors Wyc Grousbeck recruited in 2002 during his own effort to cobble together $360 million to buy the team from Paul Gaston. Pagliuca made his money at Bain Capital and brought in a lot of his Bain buddies (like Edgerley and Connaughton) to the Celtics fold. Pagliuca’s son Joe — cofounder of tech investment firm Parquet Capital — is also a Celtics limited partner.
I’ve also wondered about the Epstein brothers — Abbey Group cofounders Robert and David Epstein. Along with Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca, they were the Big Three of the current ownership group.
But I can see the Epsteins turning their attention to another sport: women’s soccer. Robert’s daughter Jennifer Epstein is the controlling owner of Boston Legacy FC, the new National Women’s Soccer League team set to begin its season next year.
In May on a podcast cohosted by retired Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Epstein seemed to indicate that her family is exiting the Celtics. She said she will remain a fan but “may not have quite as good seats.”
“It’ll be bittersweet, but it’s been a phenomenal 23 years, and it’s taken me to places that I didn’t anticipate. I wouldn’t necessarily go riding the duck boats down Boylston Street with two million fans cheering for the Celtics,” said Epstein. “It really helped position me to now launch this club Boston Legacy that I hope I will also be riding down the duck boats celebrating a championship with two million fans.”
Wyc Grousbeck, right, and Steve Pagliuca have been lead figures in the Celtics' ownership group for two decades.
Wyc Grousbeck, right, and Steve Pagliuca have been lead figures in the Celtics' ownership group for two decades.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
The Celtics have been a fan favorite because Grousbeck and Pagliuca built a team designed to win titles, even if it meant losing money some years. As Grousbeck has explained it: “We will be paid in parades.”
And in an unusual arrangement, Grousbeck will be in charge a little bit longer as governor of the Celtics through the 2027-28 season.
The sale must still be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, which meets in July. At a press conference last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver indicated that the sale of the Celtics was on track and that Chisholm wanted to ease into his new basketball role.
“I think he’s a huge admirer of Wyc Grousbeck and the way he’s been running that team. Obviously their results speak for themselves,” Silver said. “What he’s working out with Wyc is an opportunity for him, as I said, to learn the business from Wyc, then step in as the principal owner, the governor of the team.”
Chisholm takes the reins at a precarious moment for the Celtics. Despite high hopes for a repeat title run, the team fell to the Knicks in the second round of the playoffs in May, and suffered an even bigger blow when star Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles’ tendon and had to undergo surgery. He will likely miss most, if not all, of next season.
On top of that, the C’s are facing a salary and luxury tax bill of about $500 million and may need to shed some high-price talent in the off season, forcing difficult decisions about the roster from day one of the new ownership.
So while Chisholm may have landed his shot to win the Celtics, the hard part lays ahead. Keeping the beloved Celtics at the top of their game.
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com.