The Friedkin Group, Philadelphia Phillies minority owner Stan Middleman and Symphony Technology Group managing partner William Chisholm are among the groups that remain engaged in bidding for the Boston Celtics, according to multiple people familiar with the process.
Those three groups, plus one led by existing Celtics investor Steve Pagliuca, have all participated in management presentations with the NBA team, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. The next round of bids is due at the end of the week.
The Celtics—which are worth $5.66 billion, according to Sportico’s rankings—will almost certainly fetch the highest price ever paid for control of an NBA team. That said, the Celtics do not own their arena, and they own a small minority stake in its local media partner, presenting a unique pricing challenge for bidders.
It’s unclear if any of the groups are fully funded, or where they are on bid price.
Pagliuca declined to comment. A rep for BDT & MSD and JPMorgan Chase, the two banks hired to sell the Celtics, also declined to comment. Reps for Symphony Technology Group, the Friedkin Group and Middleman’s Freedom Mortgage didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Pagliuca—the former co-chair of Bain Capital, and the owner and co-chairman of the Atalanta soccer club in Italy’s Serie A— has been viewed by many in the industry as a front-runner to land the team given his insider status. He hired a pair of banks, Allen & Co. and Raine, to assist him in the Celtics bidding process.
The Friedkin Group, a privately held consortium based in Texas, has a portfolio that spans sports, automotive, entertainment and hospitality. The sports assets include Italian soccer club AS Roma and English Premier League club Everton, which it bought late last year. Dan Friedkin, the owner and CEO, is worth $7.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Middleman is the president and CEO of Freedom Mortgage. He bought a 16.25% stake of the Phillies in 2023, and he has kicked the tires on investments in other major sports teams, including the Cleveland Guardians and Washington Nationals. Middleman, who serves as the Phillies’ vice chairman, contributed additional funds to the MLB team during another minority stake sale last year.
Chisholm is the co-founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of Symphony Technology Group (STG), which is based in Menlo Park, Calif. STG’s portfolio includes more than 50 active and closed investments, with about $10 billion of assets under management, as of March 2023. Prior to starting STG, Chisholm co-founded The Valent Group, and he also worked at Bain & Company.
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, who currently control the team. Irving Grousbeck is about 90 years old, and his son Wyc has run the team for years. Wyc 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.
However, it’s unclear if the intention to sell the team in two stages is still the plan as the sale process enters its later stages. 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.
The Grousbecks led a group that bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million.