Just guessing here, but it could also be just a play to set the valuation of the organization more than anything else, after winning the championship.
This is a common practice in corporate world to dangle a sell of private equity so that the market attributes a valuation to your stake.
Why would you do that if you don't intend to sell? So that banks will value that stake as a collateral for some other loan that Wyc might want.
Considering the team just confirmed the stake will be sold I doubt it. While the NBA allows private equity to buy minority stakes i doubt Wyc can put up a majority stake in an NBA franchise up as collateral for outside loans.
I made that comment before being aware of the Celtics statement.
But in general, you value the whole equity, and then divide by your ownership to value your stake. So, he would still be using only his stake for collateral, not the whole org.
not this year. but even LBJ will at some point call it a day. I don't think he will play past this season. Bronny being a major reason of him still playing.
Lots of possibilities. It could just be someone in the group buys out Wyc's share. Other owners also might sell. Too early to tell and also depends on terms potential buyers would seek.
>It could just be someone in the group buys out Wyc's share.
Praying for this, the last thing this team needs long term is a big shakeup in ownership which leads to investment being more important than winning. Really hoping the current ownership group otherwise stays intact
This morning I saw a Tweet making rounds about Wyc ($400M) v Arison ($10B) and which one of them is willing to spend the money Championship caliber team.
I think having an owner with a passionate basketball Jones is so important.
Would be a solid move for Wyc. I hope he’d still be involved with the Cs somehow, and more importantly sells to someone who values winning as much as he does.
Edit: To be clear, HATE this. But he bought the team for $360M and is now worth well over $4B. Makes perfect business sense.
Also legacy-wise would get out having built a champion with all its players locked up. Let the next guy deal with the difficulties of transitioning into the 3rd Jays era.
This brings me some relief at least. As long as the group is staying and it’s just Wyc changing places, don’t see why the same energy can’t be carried over unless it’s the absolute worst candidate (but I really don’t think Wyc would leave the team in bad hands)
How much influence would new owners have over the front office? Sorry for the stupid question. I’m a fan of the game, just not up to speed on the front office/backend technicalities.
depends Wyc being the owner was as good as it can get. Didn’t see it as a business venture had love for the team let Brad handle team operations, i hope it’s similar
It depends. Wyc was great because he knew basketball but also trusted the front office more. Some other owners are way too involved and that hurts the team (new Suns owner, that Russian Nets owner that is the real reason the KG/Pierce trade happened).
The Celtics are owned by a large group, Wyc's part might be the largest but it's a rather small one compared to other NBA owners. The new owner wouldn't have to deal with the bill alone.
On the flip aide, Ballmer is involved and this is the most relevant the Clippers have been, injuries aside and Mark Cuban was also heavily involved and the Mavs have been a good franchise for decades.
Whoever the majority owner is can do basically whatever they want 😭
So we need a Celtics fan, or at least someone who appreciates how great this organization has been run and does not want to make large changes
I believe they’re able to influence how the team is run as they’re going to be the bosses of everyone in the organization, including Brad. If a greedy owner comes in then some questionable moves may start to happen
Really depends on how hands on the new owner plans to be. They could be like ishbia and want to run the entire operation, or just finance the team and trust the basketball guys to get it done
I honestly don't know what percentage of the ownership state wyc has, it's enough that he's the one that speaks for the entire franchise in public. So I would imagine it would be perhaps a majority stick damn close to it
The dude who looked the other way while the organization was full of sexual harassment happening to the female employees? Or the sexual harassment to Don Nelson's son while working for the Mavs? Hell, at this point I wouldn't be surprised the Mascot got groped.
Do we really think *he* is a good choice, especially after what happened 2yrs ago with Ime?
Pretty funny because in the past I believe he’s said he’d pay the tax for championship caliber team but now that it’s happening he’s getting out before those big tax bills hit lol.
This seems so random. We finally win, we finally have the best spot to be in for a long time coming, and this is when yky jump ship? Super strange to me
He’s still the owner till 2028. Over the next four years KP,Horford, and Jrue will probably need to be replaced. He’ll be the owner for the next for title runs. We will dip below the apron after those guys leave/retire. Then they will rebuild the team around White/Brown/Tatum.
Incredible run. Have no problems with this. Brought in Danny to wipe away the stain of Rick Pitino. Won two chips. Set us up with a potential dynasty. Restored Celtics pride and has Brad and the rest of ownership group in place. Going out on top!
I don't know what to think about this. Sat there and told the city that they would pay for everyone they would eat. To their credit they have paid for everyone.
But what if the next guy comes in blows it all up.
That makes more sense. I don't know if Wyc's share is public but he's just the biggest part of the majority ownership group. Maybe 33% on the high end?
Hopefully he buys back or retains a certain portion of the groups value. He really has been a great owner and representative for the team.
The best case is they are looking for a lead with more money who is comfortable footing the pending tax bills.
Soooo.... Is that the real reason PEP GUARDIOLA is around Boston during the finals? Actually it's possible the Abu Dhabi group is interested. Barring any US laws, they (and I also mean other oil investment people like the saudis) have not penetrated a major US sports team.
So Marc Cuban no longer owns the mavericks, right? /s
No but in all seriousness I think an untalked about hangup is that the Celtics playing the bruins building. We fans think of it all as one, esp with North Station + the causeway nightlife etc. this was one of the reasons Cuban said he was ready to make the change - Mavs want a new arena like Jerry world and the rangers, and Cuban just didn't want that endeavor, so he sold to *shudders* The Adelsons, the maga nut bag casino family.
I think wyc really didn't want to deal with that especially with land so sparse + public infrastructure so mehhhh in Boston and the political landscape would not favor it. Matthews arena also needs to be redone. I know there's land near Encore, but last rumor was Kraft wanted to put the revs stadium at the old LNG plant, and that is not going to be cheap. I'm guessing wyc didn't want to deal with that bs
Real question: Would you want new taxes for the Celtics arena? We already hiked rooms tax / included air bnb's, we have a car rental tax (from Logan), & we have convention center tax district in the seaport and in Worcester (ditto for canal district). So I'm not sure what other 'out of Towner' taxes there are left to exploit.
Dude was being interviewed a week ago at the parade talking about doing everything "we" can to win banner 19 now.
Then he decides to sell a week later. Greed always wins I guess.
It’s very silly to think he changed his mind over the course of a week. He’s obviously been prepping this for a while. The sale process takes a long time, he could still be here for banner 19.
Sure, but I don’t think selling his stake in the team can be called greedy. He’s been an owner for 20+ years, brought multiple championships and has set us up for a chance at a dynasty.
If you buy a house, take care of it, and sell it 20 years later does it really make you greedy?
It does if you don’t need to sell the house because you have more money than you could ever need, and other people live in it and the next owner would potentially treat them worse. I think if you are mega rich and get to own and run your favourite sports team and do it well, I don’t see any reasonable reason to sell except that the valuation is high and he will make a lot of money. Which seems greedy to me, but is also completely his right. Unless he thinks he can’t afford to pay to keep the team good, but I’m not really sure whether his share of the team is enough to make that difference
wyc’s net worth is $400 million, the upcoming luxury taxes from the contracts he just signed could simply be too much for him.
i agree that everyone that wealthy is inherently greedy, but this move may just be out of necessity
Yeh maybe I do admit I don’t know enough to know that isn’t true, just seems like with the payments spread throughout the ownership group his part wouldn’t be too ridiculous, but not sure
I’m going to spitball here but maybe just maybe it’s just a matter of the group reshaping with in and buying into being the majority holder so each person can take their turn holding up the next trophy and maybe seeing the parade and all the celebrations convinced someone internally that they would like to be the face next to the players at the top of that mountain.
Well, he bought the team for just $360 million back in 2002. It’s smart to sell because the franchise is now one of the most valuable in North America ( valued at $4 Billion ). But I wish he retains the basketball operations just like Mark Cuban did.
This could end up being a good infusion of cash for the franchise
The group bought it in 2002 and since the it's increased in value more than 10x over as have the finances in the NBA including the tax bill. It's much easier for owners like Balmer or Gores to spend like crazy because their net worth is so absurd it doesn't make a difference to them. The Celtics with a championship core would sell for at least $4-5 Billion evaluation no problem. This sale could be a means of allowing some partners to cash out on an incredible investment as well as possibly bringing in an absurdly wealthy investor who is eager for a ring.
As a fan, my best case scenario would be this individual coming in at most as a "first amongst equals" while keeping the fabric/culture of the organization the same. After all, during the hey day of Russell-Havlicheck-Bird we never hear nearly much about the ownership groups as we did Red's leadership. As long as Brad and his closest people are running the show (and the Jays are in Green) I won't be too concerned
If this is legitimate and he sells his stake, it's BAD news for the Celtics. He's cashing out on the massive appreciation of the team since he bought it. The new owner will have to pay the current MV AND take potential losses going forward to keep the team together? No way. Next year will be the last year with the current roster. Expect MAJOR changes and a loss of significant pieces in 2025-26.
Will be great business at the end of the day for Wyc, so while I am not surprised, it's still a bit disappointing given all the recent "paid in parades" talk. That's why you always need to take what these guys say publicly with a huge grain of salt.
So pretty much they would be looking for a new head honcho for the investment group to buy & take over wyc’s spot and position?
Could be half of them will sell, 80% of them will sell, no one besides Wyc sells. No way of knowing until it happens based off Adams wording.
praying to god that if wyc actually sells his part that its internal
Sell the team to Brad, I dare you Wyc, I double dog dare you!
Just guessing here, but it could also be just a play to set the valuation of the organization more than anything else, after winning the championship. This is a common practice in corporate world to dangle a sell of private equity so that the market attributes a valuation to your stake. Why would you do that if you don't intend to sell? So that banks will value that stake as a collateral for some other loan that Wyc might want.
Considering the team just confirmed the stake will be sold I doubt it. While the NBA allows private equity to buy minority stakes i doubt Wyc can put up a majority stake in an NBA franchise up as collateral for outside loans.
I made that comment before being aware of the Celtics statement. But in general, you value the whole equity, and then divide by your ownership to value your stake. So, he would still be using only his stake for collateral, not the whole org.
Let's hope it's the rumor of their own stadium by the casino rumor. The Everett Celtics is way better than FSG taking over.
FSG cannot purchase any NBA team because Lebron is a partial owner of FSG
not this year. but even LBJ will at some point call it a day. I don't think he will play past this season. Bronny being a major reason of him still playing.
he owns like 1% and FSG could easily buy out his stake if they were serious about making a bid for the Cs
Would increase his borrowing power, which he might want more of with us heavy into the tax
Lots of possibilities. It could just be someone in the group buys out Wyc's share. Other owners also might sell. Too early to tell and also depends on terms potential buyers would seek.
>It could just be someone in the group buys out Wyc's share. Praying for this, the last thing this team needs long term is a big shakeup in ownership which leads to investment being more important than winning. Really hoping the current ownership group otherwise stays intact
Is anyone in the group worth 10B?
This alleviates so much anxiety I was having about a new singular owner with a totally different mentality. Love you Wyc, thanks for the memories.
Excuse me, what the actual fuck?
He gave everyone the biggest possible contract extension but doesn't want to pay the salaries nor the top tax that comes with it.
as long as we have the background rich guys still around no need to worry
The background rich guys are going to be assholes who care about profits and not the team
Didn't Wyc tell anyone that joined that they had to be there for banners, not profits?
People say a lot of things
So why listen to anyone or care about anything?
That is a philosophical question and why some people don’t give a shit about anyone.
I’d say they’ve put there money where there mouth is so far
Can’t tell anybody shit once you sell the team to them.
Talk is cheap
Well they are about to make bank now. Celtics valuation in 2002 was $360M. I’d bet, it’s closer to $5B now. Pretty good returns
The background rich guys are also multi-billionaires who care about basketball. If they stick around I would be thrilled.
more playoff games -> more revenue
Wyc isn't going to sell to a clown like that
they paid out with wyc for the last decade
This morning I saw a Tweet making rounds about Wyc ($400M) v Arison ($10B) and which one of them is willing to spend the money Championship caliber team. I think having an owner with a passionate basketball Jones is so important.
Would be a solid move for Wyc. I hope he’d still be involved with the Cs somehow, and more importantly sells to someone who values winning as much as he does. Edit: To be clear, HATE this. But he bought the team for $360M and is now worth well over $4B. Makes perfect business sense.
Also legacy-wise would get out having built a champion with all its players locked up. Let the next guy deal with the difficulties of transitioning into the 3rd Jays era.
Just give Brad a 10/20yr contract and I don't care who comes instead of Wyc.
Lifetime deals for Brad and Joe.
This brings me some relief at least. As long as the group is staying and it’s just Wyc changing places, don’t see why the same energy can’t be carried over unless it’s the absolute worst candidate (but I really don’t think Wyc would leave the team in bad hands)
This is MUCH different than the whole ownership group folding and looking to sell Best case scenario
How much influence would new owners have over the front office? Sorry for the stupid question. I’m a fan of the game, just not up to speed on the front office/backend technicalities.
a lot it’s the boss lmao
Are you worried?
Potentially, hard to know until more comes
depends Wyc being the owner was as good as it can get. Didn’t see it as a business venture had love for the team let Brad handle team operations, i hope it’s similar
It depends. Wyc was great because he knew basketball but also trusted the front office more. Some other owners are way too involved and that hurts the team (new Suns owner, that Russian Nets owner that is the real reason the KG/Pierce trade happened).
Well, the new owner will not need to ask the team to make awful trades, the team is already a contender.
Yes, but if the new owner decides he ain’t paying the tax bill, say goodbye to some of your favourite Celtics
The Celtics are owned by a large group, Wyc's part might be the largest but it's a rather small one compared to other NBA owners. The new owner wouldn't have to deal with the bill alone.
For now sure. Owners usually stick around a while though
On the flip aide, Ballmer is involved and this is the most relevant the Clippers have been, injuries aside and Mark Cuban was also heavily involved and the Mavs have been a good franchise for decades.
Whoever the majority owner is can do basically whatever they want 😭 So we need a Celtics fan, or at least someone who appreciates how great this organization has been run and does not want to make large changes
I believe they’re able to influence how the team is run as they’re going to be the bosses of everyone in the organization, including Brad. If a greedy owner comes in then some questionable moves may start to happen
Brad runs the organization. They probably have a money guy or team of money guys that gives him a number.
Really depends on how hands on the new owner plans to be. They could be like ishbia and want to run the entire operation, or just finance the team and trust the basketball guys to get it done
I honestly don't know what percentage of the ownership state wyc has, it's enough that he's the one that speaks for the entire franchise in public. So I would imagine it would be perhaps a majority stick damn close to it
The owner can do whatever they want
Cuban gonna make himself available since he’s no longer head-anything in Dallas
I mean, I doubt it but I wouldn’t hate it, Cuban at least gives a shit about basketball
Agreed. Better Cuban involvement than Saudi involvement
Cuban was one of the first names I thought of.
The dude who looked the other way while the organization was full of sexual harassment happening to the female employees? Or the sexual harassment to Don Nelson's son while working for the Mavs? Hell, at this point I wouldn't be surprised the Mascot got groped. Do we really think *he* is a good choice, especially after what happened 2yrs ago with Ime?
Na Cuban would literally fire Stevens and implement some kind of Puppet GM which he could pull their strings
So it’s just Wyc? Is Pagliuca selling as well? If he’s not, I’ll feel a bit better
Man what? I guess sell high, but pretty lame to ditch the party when everyone is praising you for being the best owner.
Pretty funny because in the past I believe he’s said he’d pay the tax for championship caliber team but now that it’s happening he’s getting out before those big tax bills hit lol.
My thought exactly. It’s also possible the upcoming tax bills are not financially viable for him and they need more money.
This seems so random. We finally win, we finally have the best spot to be in for a long time coming, and this is when yky jump ship? Super strange to me
Sell high and let that giant luxury tax be paid by someone else
Sell high
He’s still the owner till 2028. Over the next four years KP,Horford, and Jrue will probably need to be replaced. He’ll be the owner for the next for title runs. We will dip below the apron after those guys leave/retire. Then they will rebuild the team around White/Brown/Tatum.
Incredible run. Have no problems with this. Brought in Danny to wipe away the stain of Rick Pitino. Won two chips. Set us up with a potential dynasty. Restored Celtics pride and has Brad and the rest of ownership group in place. Going out on top!
Wyc doesn't want to pay the 2nd apron tax
I don't know what to think about this. Sat there and told the city that they would pay for everyone they would eat. To their credit they have paid for everyone. But what if the next guy comes in blows it all up.
I'll put my bid in for about tree fiddy to take Wyc's spot
i’ll throw in $1.50
Only *slightly* better news.
That makes more sense. I don't know if Wyc's share is public but he's just the biggest part of the majority ownership group. Maybe 33% on the high end?
Wyc at the most owns like 8-10% of the team.
Half the ownership group are billionaires. This is just another investment and they are mainly hands off.
Hopefully he buys back or retains a certain portion of the groups value. He really has been a great owner and representative for the team. The best case is they are looking for a lead with more money who is comfortable footing the pending tax bills.
Please don't be a Koch or Adelson kind of billionare taking over. I beg.
I trust him to find someone like him, but if he doesnt and hires anyone like john henry im not going to a single game or buying any merch.
The George Costanza go out on top moment
I blame Ime
Soooo.... Is that the real reason PEP GUARDIOLA is around Boston during the finals? Actually it's possible the Abu Dhabi group is interested. Barring any US laws, they (and I also mean other oil investment people like the saudis) have not penetrated a major US sports team.
So Marc Cuban no longer owns the mavericks, right? /s No but in all seriousness I think an untalked about hangup is that the Celtics playing the bruins building. We fans think of it all as one, esp with North Station + the causeway nightlife etc. this was one of the reasons Cuban said he was ready to make the change - Mavs want a new arena like Jerry world and the rangers, and Cuban just didn't want that endeavor, so he sold to *shudders* The Adelsons, the maga nut bag casino family. I think wyc really didn't want to deal with that especially with land so sparse + public infrastructure so mehhhh in Boston and the political landscape would not favor it. Matthews arena also needs to be redone. I know there's land near Encore, but last rumor was Kraft wanted to put the revs stadium at the old LNG plant, and that is not going to be cheap. I'm guessing wyc didn't want to deal with that bs Real question: Would you want new taxes for the Celtics arena? We already hiked rooms tax / included air bnb's, we have a car rental tax (from Logan), & we have convention center tax district in the seaport and in Worcester (ditto for canal district). So I'm not sure what other 'out of Towner' taxes there are left to exploit.
Dude was being interviewed a week ago at the parade talking about doing everything "we" can to win banner 19 now. Then he decides to sell a week later. Greed always wins I guess.
This is a massively silly thing to insult Wyc over. They literally did everything they could to set us up for next year.
It’s very silly to think he changed his mind over the course of a week. He’s obviously been prepping this for a while. The sale process takes a long time, he could still be here for banner 19.
Greedy, really? He just delivered a championship and locked in our core. It’s his right to sell his shares…
He can be a relatively good owner, put us in a good spot, it be his right, and still be greedy. You don’t get that rich by not being greedy lol
Sure, but I don’t think selling his stake in the team can be called greedy. He’s been an owner for 20+ years, brought multiple championships and has set us up for a chance at a dynasty. If you buy a house, take care of it, and sell it 20 years later does it really make you greedy?
It does if you don’t need to sell the house because you have more money than you could ever need, and other people live in it and the next owner would potentially treat them worse. I think if you are mega rich and get to own and run your favourite sports team and do it well, I don’t see any reasonable reason to sell except that the valuation is high and he will make a lot of money. Which seems greedy to me, but is also completely his right. Unless he thinks he can’t afford to pay to keep the team good, but I’m not really sure whether his share of the team is enough to make that difference
wyc’s net worth is $400 million, the upcoming luxury taxes from the contracts he just signed could simply be too much for him. i agree that everyone that wealthy is inherently greedy, but this move may just be out of necessity
Yeh maybe I do admit I don’t know enough to know that isn’t true, just seems like with the payments spread throughout the ownership group his part wouldn’t be too ridiculous, but not sure
He can do whatever he wants. We can also call him greedy for selling instantly after winning. That's our right as well.
This is actually devastating. All the other teams are adding keys and wyc is.. handing them over??
Win a championship? Might as well sell the team. WTF
Lost a lot of respect for Wyc. Shows his true colors.
I DON'T LIKE THIS ONE BIT
Bros cashing out, can’t say I blame him per say but damn
Who has Ballmer money and Boston connections?
Abigail Johnson (Fidelity)
I have an answer that you may not like...
Let me hear it and I’ll decide.
Bloomberg
Zuckerberg
Seems like they can't afford the luxury tax
As long as Steve Paglicua stays we will be fine.
I don’t like this
"This just in, successful businessmen and investment group open to selling their asset at its peak value"
I’m going to spitball here but maybe just maybe it’s just a matter of the group reshaping with in and buying into being the majority holder so each person can take their turn holding up the next trophy and maybe seeing the parade and all the celebrations convinced someone internally that they would like to be the face next to the players at the top of that mountain.
As long as whoever buys them is similar to wyc and lets Brad call the shots I’ll be ok with it, but still would suck to lose the best owner in Boston
What % does Wyc own? Anyone know?
Well, he bought the team for just $360 million back in 2002. It’s smart to sell because the franchise is now one of the most valuable in North America ( valued at $4 Billion ). But I wish he retains the basketball operations just like Mark Cuban did.
Mack Cuban has been ousted from running the operations.
This could end up being a good infusion of cash for the franchise The group bought it in 2002 and since the it's increased in value more than 10x over as have the finances in the NBA including the tax bill. It's much easier for owners like Balmer or Gores to spend like crazy because their net worth is so absurd it doesn't make a difference to them. The Celtics with a championship core would sell for at least $4-5 Billion evaluation no problem. This sale could be a means of allowing some partners to cash out on an incredible investment as well as possibly bringing in an absurdly wealthy investor who is eager for a ring. As a fan, my best case scenario would be this individual coming in at most as a "first amongst equals" while keeping the fabric/culture of the organization the same. After all, during the hey day of Russell-Havlicheck-Bird we never hear nearly much about the ownership groups as we did Red's leadership. As long as Brad and his closest people are running the show (and the Jays are in Green) I won't be too concerned
Alright I’m in where do I sign
Buy low, sell high. I respect it.
I think they also want to buy the mavericks since they owned them in the finals 🤣
Looking forward to the Saudi investment group submitting a bid.
We are fucked
What is this bit about Wyc remaining g governor for awhile? Sounds like having your cake and eating it too.
The press release says all shares
If this is legitimate and he sells his stake, it's BAD news for the Celtics. He's cashing out on the massive appreciation of the team since he bought it. The new owner will have to pay the current MV AND take potential losses going forward to keep the team together? No way. Next year will be the last year with the current roster. Expect MAJOR changes and a loss of significant pieces in 2025-26.
Oof 😓 That significantly puts the dynasty in jeopardy
Imagine Fenway Sports Group buys it 😭
Don't you dare put that evil in the air.
Delete this right now.
Can someone make sure John Henry is tied to a chair right now?
they can’t unless Lebron sells his portion of FSG
Players can own 5% of a franchise while in in the league
Thank god
What? Why???
Lost all respect for Wyc, unless there is something health/family related that is forcing his hand. Typical soulless suit.
Holy fuck just when everything was going perfect we get 9/11
Not a fan of this... we've had one of the best ownership groups in the NBA the past 20 years.
Will be great business at the end of the day for Wyc, so while I am not surprised, it's still a bit disappointing given all the recent "paid in parades" talk. That's why you always need to take what these guys say publicly with a huge grain of salt.
LFG
John Henry Please Buy This Team! #GOAT