Will proposed new Boston Celtics majority owner Bill Chisholm be able to secure control over the 18-time NBA champions after all?
That question hadn’t even been an issue since news of Chisholm’s $6.1 billion deal to acquire the franchise was announced on March 20 — but it is one now.
BREAKING: Bill Chisholm, managing partner at Symphony Technology Group, has agreed to purchase the Boston Celtics from the Grousbeck family for a valuation for $6.1 billion, sources tell ESPN. This now is the largest sale for a sports franchise in North America. pic.twitter.com/iPphqSQswe
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 20, 2025
As Dan Primack of Axios observes, the founder and managing partner of investment firm Symphony Technology Group has potentially violated the league’s private equity ownership rules.
Read More: Boston Celtics Officially Have New Owner in Historic $6.1 Billion Sale
Three sources inform Primack that Chisholm “has committed less money to the two-part deal than has [private equity group] Sixth Street Partners.” The league’s regulations on private equity funds as owners limit those firms to either own 20 percent or less than the percentage held by the team’s control owner, who needs to possess at least a 15 percent stake in the franchise.
NEW: The Boston Celtics sale to Bill Chisholm could test the NBA’s private equity rules, due to a very unusual structurehttps://t.co/xsK756vnzE
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) March 26, 2025
Primack lays out two approaches that Chisholm can take to deal with this.
Chisholm could bring in enough new investors that Sixth Street would be able to take a step back and relinquish some of its slice of the ownership pie.
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Primack writes that this could conceivably happen prior to the NBA‘s Board of Governors vote on the sale this June. Primack notes that current minority stakeholders could join the group, or some of the prospective owners who missed out on the winning bid to Chisholm.
Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
Alternately, Primack proposes that Chisholm ask for a one-time waiver from the NBA, gambling that the record sticker tag of the sale (which does not even include a stake in the Celtics’ home arena, TD Garden) would probably dissuade the league’s other owners from turning down such an agreement.
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Ultimately, whatever happens with this sale could dictate how private equity firms operate in franchise purchases going forward, Primack opines.
At 54-19, the Celtics currently seem destined to secure the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference when the playoffs tip off on April 19.
The reigning champs look to have a legitimate shot to defend their 2024 title, with All-Star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown providing insane two-way ability, All-Defensive Team guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday nailing triples and draping themselves all over opposing perimeter players, and former All-Star centers Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford getting healthy.
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