For months, the details of the Boston Celtics sale were unclear. Wyc Grousbeck and the NBA did a great job of keeping things under wraps until a couple of weeks ago when the final four candidates were reported. Fast forward to this past week, and Symphony Technology Group co-founder Bill Chisholm officially purchased the team.
He paid a record-setting $6.1 billion for the franchise, the most ever doled out for a North American sports franchise. Chisholm is a massive Celtics fan and, in his first move as the new owner, revealed that he plans to keep Grousbeck around for the immediate future to help him out.
But outside of the world of the Celtics, the NBA’s next move now that this endeavor has been completed is obvious.
NBA expansion is next up after Celtics sale to Bill Chisholm
While Grousbeck was the one selling the team, the NBA was very involved in this deal. Whenever a franchise is sold in their league, they have to be a huge part of it.
This was the league’s main focus for the time being, and it was taking away from their other goal for the next half-decade—expansion.
Last month, Howard Beck of The Ringer revealed that according to sources he spoke with revealed that the (at the time) impending sale of the Celtics was holding up expansion.
“The main holdup right now, per league sources, is the protracted sale of the Celtics franchise, which was put on the market last July by majority owner Wyc Grousbeck,” Beck wrote. “Sources say league officials are eying a sale price of at least $6 billion, in part to set a baseline for the expansion franchise fees (and, of course, in part due to the Celtics being one of the marquee franchises in pro sports). But that hasn’t come to pass yet, and the team remains for sale.”
Another source stated that, because the Celtics sale was taking so long, expansion was getting pushed back.
“Now that the Celtics [sale] looks like it’s just taking a lot longer, and it’s going to come in at a lower price, everything [with expansion] has gotten pushed back,” Beck’s source said.
But now that the Celtics have been sold, and more importantly, sold for the price the league wanted, their next move is obvious—push for expansion.
The NBA was worried that the Celtics wouldn’t fetch a price above the $6 billion mark, but it did. And the sale has finally concluded.
Obviously, expansion won’t happen overnight, but now that the sale has been finalized, the league can finally get the ball rolling one expansion again.
It’s a choice that’s clear as day.