Veteran NBA media personality and Celtics superfan Bill Simmons has dropped very interesting news about the future ownership of the franchise. The Boston Celtics are currently on the market as owner Wyc Grousbeck has made the intention to sell publicly known. According to Simmons, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the primary suitors for the team.
“In the last few days, I think there’s been legitimate buzz about Jeff Bezos buying the Celtics. I think it’s real, I think he’s going to be one of the suitors… It’s one of the crown jewel franchises, that’s why you get it. I think it’s real that he’s potentially in the mix for this.”
Amazon is expanding its ties with the NBA, as Bezos’ Prime Video just inked the league’s first exclusive streaming-only deal as part of the new media rights negotiation. If Bezos buys the Celtics as an individual owner, he could keep the Celtics business separate from Amazon, though it’s unclear how NBA rules will deal with the owner of one of their broadcast partners also owning a team.
The Celtics should easily set the record for the most expensive sale in NBA history given its status as a legacy franchise with the most titles in the league’s competitive past. In addition, they have a ready-made contending roster already built up and under contract for a very long time.
A more attractive NBA team sale hasn’t hit the market in a while, though there are operational issues with the Celtics such as them not owning the TD Garden. That’s a headache for the new owners, with someone as deep-pocketed as Bezos capable of ridding many of those issues compared to the incumbent owners.
The NBA Wants The Celtics To Sell For $6 Billion
Simmons would open his podcast by revealing what the NBA hopes will happen during the Celtics sale window. The league is expecting a $6 billion price tag to be put on the Celtics, as that’s the price they want to charge interested parties when the NBA expansion franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle are made available.
“The league wants $6 billion for the team, for the Celtics. They don’t own their arena. It’s a crazy price but they’re probably going to get it. They want the $6 billion because they want expansion teams in Seattle and Vegas, and Mexico City is kind of looming as a third team. But they want to get $6 billion apiece for two franchises for expansion, which would mean a check of $400 million to every NBA owner, all 30. So they’re trying to establish a price for this Celtics team.”
There were two major franchise sales over the last season, starting with Michael Jordan selling his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets at a valuation of $3 billion, which is great value for a franchise that’s consistently been at the bottom of the NBA for the last decade.
We saw a sudden mid-season sale announcement when Mark Cuban sold a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks at a discount valuation of $3.5 billion. It was done to facilitate the future growth of the franchise with the new owner, Miriam Adelson, ranking as the second-wealthiest NBA franchise owner at the moment. Cuban also maintains a minority stake and power within the organization, which is why the price was well below the $4+ billion valuation many had put on the Mavericks.
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