The Impact of the Celtics Sale

By: Jayan Gandhi

Photo of Celtics Majority Owner Wyc Grousbeck.

No one denies that the Celtics are a juggernaut. They are coming off a championship season and are already off to a hot start to the 2024-2025 season with a 19-5 record, good for the second-best in the entire NBA. However, something that isn’t being talked about enough is the sale of the franchise and how that will affect the team moving forward. This sale will possibly have the biggest impact on the Celtics roster next season and for many decades to come.

The Celtics are one of the NBA's most storied franchises, with eighteen championships. Additionally, Boston is one of the biggest sports markets in the United States. Paired together, Forbes estimates that they are worth a whopping six billion dollars. Not bad, for a current ownership group that bought the team for 360 million dollars in 2002.

Wyc Grousbeck, the majority owner, and the ownership group have been great. Unlike other Boston sports owners (Robert Kraft of the Patriots and John Henry with the Red Sox), they have consistently spent money on the teams' roster, giving them the best opportunity to win. Since buying the team in 2002, the Celtics have won the third most games of any franchise in the NBA. They are also a huge reason for the team's current success, allowing President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens to spend the money needed to retain multiple star players, most prominently Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each who just signed 300+ million dollar contracts.

The biggest concern is that the new owner of the Celtics will primarily be focused on business rather than winning. We have seen this happen to other Boston sports teams, primarily the Patriots, who often rank lowest on salary cap spending, and the Red Sox, who have payrolls near the middle of the league despite being worth the third most in all of baseball. Money is often the reason star players leave. For example, it has been rumored that Tom Brady would have stayed if the Patriots gave him the 2-year 50 million dollar contract the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offered him.

Despite the championship run last year, the Celtics didn’t even make a profit. Next year, the Celtics are projected to have a $500 billion dollar payroll which would be the largest of any American sports franchise ever. If the new owner cares about making a profit over winning, the Celtics may be in trouble. Personally, I doubt Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will be traded but players like Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday are far from a guarantee to stay.

Despite all the pessimism around this Celtics sale, there may be some good things. The Celtics don’t own TD Garden, and they pay rent to the Bruins. Maybe a new arena could be built in the future? In my opinion, it’s hard to see an owner buying a team for six billion dollars but still not owning an arena. The TD Garden definitely isn’t a bad arena, but a new one like the one the Los Angeles Clippers just built would be a huge upgrade.

The best we can do for now is hope for a deep-pocketed owner who cares about winning to buy the team. If Jeff Besos (a potential bidder) buys the Celtics, they could become the Los Angeles Dodgers of basketball, or if John Henry buys the team, they are sure to cut payroll to keep costs down. Time will tell what ends up happening, but the next owner will have a huge impact on the team moving forward.

Sources

https://www.forbes.com/teams/boston-celtics/#:~:text=Valuation%20Breakdown,$57M

https://www.sportico.com/business/team-sales/2024/celtics-sale-grousbeck-family-estate-planning-1234787315

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40624963/the-celtics-barreling-nba-first-500m-roster