Bill Chisholm buying Celtics should make fans excited and terrified

After months of speculation and a relative lack of rumors, the Boston Celtics have finally been sold. According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Bill Chisholm has purchased the Celtics for a record-setting price of $6.1 billion—the largest price ever paid for a North American sports franchise.

Shortly after the Celtics won the NBA Finals last year, Wyc Grousbeck announced that he would be selling his majority stake in the team, and now, Chisholm will enter the scene as the new owner of the team. And he will have some big decisions to make as soon as this summer regarding the future of the team.

Fans should be thrilled and terrified.

William Chisholm buying Celtics is both exciting and terrifying

Chisholm is the co-founder of Symphony Technology Group. STG is a private equity firm in California, and that’s the part that should scare some Celtics fans.

Private equity is a scary business. For those unfamiliar, it is effectively buying, improving, and then selling small, non-publicly-traded companies in an attempt to make a profit.

Obviously, the Celtics are not a small company by any means, but considering Chisholm’s entire business model has been based on buying businesses in hopes of making a profit, that doesn’t bode well for what he could prioritize when it comes to the Celtics.

That said, fans should be excited because Chisholm is a lifelong Celtics fan.

According to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe, Chisholm grew up in Georgetown, Massachusetts, which is on the North Shore and has been a Celtics fan for his entire life.

That may indicate that Chisholm is buying the Celtics as more of a passion project than an investment opportunity. And if that’s the case, he may be willing to spend some money in order to keep the team together and give them the best chance to win more championships.

Just last week, when it was revealed that Chisholm’s Symphony Technology Group could be interested in buying the team, Gillian Tan of Bloomberg reported the following:

“Born and raised in Massachusetts, Chisholm is a die-hard Celtics fan with an encyclopedic knowledge of the team, one person said.”

Himmelsbach also reported that Chisholm plans to buy a home in Boston and watches every single Celtics game.

So, while Chisholm being in the private equity business should keep fans on their toes, the fact that he reportedly loves the Celtics should be enough to draw some excitement.

There’s no telling what direction Chisholm will take the team in, and there won’t be any updates until he speaks publicly for the first time. Until then, all fans can do is wait and see.