The bottom line regarding Marc Lore giving up controlling interest in the Timberwolves and Lynx last week may have been Lore’s bottom line.
New Minnesota Timberwolves owners Marc Lore, right, and baseball great Alex Rodriguez, center, hold jerseys presented to them by team owner Glen Taylor during a new conference to introduce the new ownership partners of the NBA Timberwolves basketball team and the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
In other words, Lore needed the cash.
New controlling owner Marc Stad, 47, a Harvard grad who was a quiet limited partner in the Wolves-Lynx and who heads an equity firm based in San Francisco, appears to be bailing out Lore in a deal at a valuation of $4.5 billion.
It was Lore and Rodriguez who in 2024 were bailed out by billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Eric Schmidt to make a $1.5 billion purchase of the franchises from Glen Taylor. That occurred after an informed source told the Pioneer Press that the pair didn’t have enough cash to buy the teams.
By NBA rules, Lore was required to have had at least a 15 percent investment in the Wolves-Lynx purchase. By selling to Stad, Lore, who was the lead guy for slightly more than a year, may have tripled his initial investment.
The sale appears a means for Lore to gain cash for other business interests. He reportedly will remain as a minority partner, and Stad’s wife Elisa will replace him as the Timberwolves’ governor.
Although on a smaller scale, Lore’s Wolves-Lynx transaction doesn’t seem much dissimilar than what’s taking place with the controversial sale of the Los Angeles Lakers.
— Six-time former Vikings Pro Bowl center Matt Birk will tell you that every time teammate Adrian Peterson carried the ball, he was a genuine threat to score a touchdown. Every single time. Peterson, who goes into the Vikings’ Ring of Honor on Nov. 9, was a “violent” runner, Birk said.
Speaking of Birk, the former Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl XLVII champion center, it remains an injustice that he’s not in the Vikings’ Ring of Honor. On Thursday, he visited pals during the Vikings-Ravens scrimmage In Eagan.
Vikings co-owner Zygi Wilf also attended the scrimmage Thursday, as did Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz has lost considerable weight. He said he runs daily and told the Pioneer Press he intends to run the New York Marathon on Nov. 1. Asked plans after he’s out of office, he said he’ll probably seek a college teaching job.
“It’s not about capitalizing on what you did, it’s about giving back what you learned,” he said.
— Ex-Gophers basketball star Willie Burton, 68, who played nine seasons in the NBA and lives in St. Paul, is near completion of his Ph.D. in “Sport and Exercise Psychology” at the University of Minnesota.
“Looking forward to a new chapter in my life,” Burton said.
— A group of coach Clem Haskins’ former Gophers men’s basketball players visited him last weekend at his home in Campbellsville, Ky., for his 83rd birthday.
— St. John’s-Collegeville has a half-dozen football recruits from last season’s St. Thomas Academy Class 5A state semifinalists, who finished 11-1.
— The big Division III season-opening football game will be between No. 1 nationally- ranked North Central College and No. 2 Bethel University at North Central on Sept.5. On Oct. 3, No. 11 St. John’s will host Bethel.
— Ticket prices for the upstart Minnesota Forge professional women’s volleyball team that will begin play at Grand Casino Arena in January range from $13 to $40. The team says $50 deposits for season tickets have doubled since the franchise’s inception was announced last week.
— It seems inevitable that Minnesota’s two pro women’s volleyball teams, the Forge and the upcoming League One team, will eventually merge.
— Wild general manager Billy Guerin speaks at a Capital Club breakfast Sept. 16 at the Wild headquarters in St. Paul at 317 Washington Street.
— When Adam Thielen played for the Vikings, he was the team’s best golfer. Matt Boldy is the Wild’s best golfer. The pair, and the Wild’s Ryan Hartman and professional Andrew Israelson from Staples, will compete in the CRMC tournament this week at Cragun’s Resort courses in Brainerd.
“Just hoping to make the cut,” said Thielen, a scratch handicapper. “These guys are really good.”
Thielen is right. Israelson, the former Minnesota PGA pro-am champion, will be medalist among the foursome.
— Tickets for the Gophers-St. Thomas men’s basketball game on Nov. 6 at Williams Arenas range from $62.50 to $163.98 on tix.axs.com. Tickets for the Timberwolves-New York Knicks exhibition game on Oct. 12 at Madison Square Garden begin at $177, per vivid seats.com. Top price is $4,900.
— Former Cretin-Derham Hall basketball star J’Vonne Hadley has signed a 10-day contract with the Miami Heat. Another CDH alum, Curtis Jones, plays for the Denver Nuggets.
— Dave Ziebarth and David Schlaefer will be inducted into the St. Thomas Academy Hall of Fame on Oct. 1 at Jax Cafe.
— Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Housley from South St. Paul, after spending two seasons with the New York Rangers as associate head coach, is headed to the Los Angeles Kings as associate head coach.
“New York was a great experience, coaching in Madison Square Garden. But now going coast to coast to L.A., the bottom line is trying to win,” said Housley, 62. “We’ve got a good team, and I’m excited about it.”
#### Don’t print that
— Pssst: All signs, until a 2-1 federal appeals court ruling on Friday, pointed to an extra season of Gophers men’s basketball eligibility for 6-foot-7 Cade Tyson, last year’s leading scorer (19.6 points). Until the ruling in Denver, an announcement on Tyson’s return was expected this week. Although delayed, a window still isn’t closed for his return, which would be huge for the Gophers.
Meanwhile, it also looked promising for a fifth year for former Cretin-Derham Hall guard Tre Holloman, who split college between Michigan State and North Carolina State. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino was rumored to have interest in Holloman.
— Vikings tickets for a family of four this season will cost an average of $1,269, down from $1,426 last season, per analysis by The Action Network. Vikings tickets, which were 10th most expensive among the NFL’s 32 teams last season, now rank 16th.
Average parking cost during U.S. Bank Stadium’s upcoming 10th season, though, is up $9 to $50. The NFL’s most expensive is Buffalo’s new Highmark Stadium, where the average price for parking is $132.
— For Friday’s final Vikings exhibition game against the Broncos in Denver, the Vikings will play as few players as possible that they think will make the team. Not only will first-teamers not play, but few backup players will play. Those who will play are those who will be cut or practice squad guys.
— The football Gophers are favored by 45 points in their opener Sept. 3 against Eastern Illinois in Minneapolis.
— The Minnesota State High School League, which has strict rules about transferring students, on Thursday declined to comment to the Pioneer Press on Duluth Marshall junior basketball star Chloe Johnson’s transfer to Proctor for the coming season. Generally, a varsity transfer is ineligible for one year, but there can be exceptions.
For the past five years, according to the league, there have been between 1,900 and 2,000 transfers annually. That’s nearly 2,000 transfers out of 130,000 ninth-graders through 12th graders who participate in league activities each year, fewer than 2 percent.
— It’s little known, but name, image and likeness (NIL) — students getting paid — is allowed in Minnesota high school sports. There are exclusions, however, for what they can be paid. Students cannot be paid for athletic performance or if they are wearing their school’s uniforms. They can be paid for recommending various products.
— Beth Goetz, the classy former Gophers athletics director who was paid $850,000 a year as AD at Iowa, gets a 65 percent pay raise to $1.44 million a year, the average in the Big Ten. It was Goetz who a year ago fired Fran McCaffery as basketball coach and hired Ben McCollum, who immediately took the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Elite Eight.
Goetz, 52, became Minnesota’s interim a.d. after the pressured resignation of Norwood Teague in 2015.
— Facing an apparent roadblock back to the major league Twins, and considering his minor league home run prowess, St. Paul Saints outfielder Matt Wallner, 28, the Forest Lake grad, would seem an attractive candidate to play in Japan next season. Especially with a call-up of Walker Jenkins, 21, from the Saints expected before long. Wallner has 23 home runs this season for the Saints while hitting .270 in 73 games. Jenkins has nine homers while hitting .294 in 65 games.
— The Triple-A Saints have used 49 pitchers this season.
— Even though it’s virtually certain that major league baseball owners will lock out players on Dec. 2, the Saints, excluding players on 40-man major league rosters, will play their regular 150-game schedule (75 at CHS Field).
Saints full-season tickets for 2027 will range from $1,000 to $6,000, with a half-season ticket available for $550.
— If there’s a work stoppage in 2027, major leaguers already signed for that season will lose that money for however long there is a stoppage. Contracts won’t carry over to 2028. That’s a big part of the owners’ leverage in labor negotiations.
— Each night during training camp, the Vikings have a security guard knock on every player’s door to make sure they’re following curfew.
— On Monday evening for the Twins-Atlanta Braves game at Target Field, there was a 51-minute rain delay without any rain.
— The Twins have seven remaining games with the first-place Chicago White Sox, beginning Aug. 28 through Sept. 7.
— That was Twins 1987 World Series catcher Tim Laudner coaching first base for the summer wood bat collegiate league Bismarck Larks team recently in North Dakota, where former Twins President Dave St. Peter was honored by his hometown.
“Things have really, really changed — just about every kid I walked up to and asked where they went to school, they said ‘I’m in the (NCAA transfer) portal,’” said Laudner, shaking his head.
#### Overheard
— Wild owner Craig Leipold on Friday to the Pioneer Press, on the contact extension status of star defenseman Quinn Hughes: “We’re just waiting to hear from him.”
_For more Charley Walters: DontPrintThat.com._