Boston Celtics fans have spent the past six days getting themselves acquainted with the team’s reported new owner, Bill Chisholm.
Chisholm grew up on the North Shore, is a die-hard Celtics fan, but may not actually end up owning the team.
Wait, what?
That’s right. According to a new report from Axios’ Dan Primack, Chisholm’s deal to acquire the Cs from Wyc Grousbeck and his family violates an NBA rule regarding private equity funds.
Bill Chisholm, the club’s presumptive new control owner, has committed less money to the two-part deal than has Sixth Street Partners, according to three sources.
Primack explains that the league requires private equity funds to own less than 20% of a franchise’s stake or below the percentage held by the control owner of said franchise — whichever is less.
Does this mean that the sale is dead?
No.
Chisholm can still buy the Celtics, he’s just going to have to do one of two things, according to Primack.
One is that he pulls in so many new investors that Sixth Street’s full check is no longer needed — and the firm allows itself to fall below Chisholm in the cap table. This remains possible before other owners vote in June, particularly if some existing minority investors roll over their stakes and/or some of the losing bidders join with Chisholm.
The other is that Chisholm requests some sort of waiver from the league, guessing that other owners won’t reject a deal with so high a price tag.
Should the sale fall through, the Grousbeck family will have to look elsewhere for another buyer.
They could turn back to the sale’s other finalists: Philadelphia Phillies minority owner Stan Middleman, the Friedken Group, or current Celtics minority investor, Steve Pagliuca.
Pagliuca is the most interesting of the bunch. Fans already know him, and he seemed pretty “passionate” when the reports of Chisholm’s acquisition of the green surfaced.
His five-paragraph statement was full of flair as he expressed disappointment that his group’s offer wasn’t selected as the winner.
It is interesting that he mentioned private equity funding as a reason for concern about the funding that would be backing the Celtics’ roster down the line.
For now, Pags is going to have to wait and see what happens with the current bid, just like the rest of us.