A family rift over how expensive the Boston Celtics’ payroll is about to become in the next few years may have led to the decision to sell the franchise.
The Celtics are owned by the Boston Basketball Partners, a group of investors in which Wyc Grousbeck is the face and team Governor, but he personally owns about three percent of the team, sources told Josh Kosman and Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Wyc’s father, Irving Grousbeck, 90, put up the most cash and owns 20% of the team.
It’s a team that’s about to get very expensive. To keep the Celtics’ championship core together, Jaylen Brown has a max contract extension that kicks in this season, and this summer Jayson Tatum signed his max contract that starts next season (2025-26), plus there is $30 million to Jrue Holiday, $29.3 million for Kristaps Porzingis and on down the line. Payroll and taxes are expected to come out to $262 million for the Celtics this coming season (fourth most in the league), and that is expected to balloon up to more than $450 million for the 2025-26 season.
That price tag and associated losses made the elder Grousbeck push back, according to the New York Post.
Irving Grousbeck... balked at funding big losses on the horizon from the massive contracts that helped the Celtics capture a record 18th NBA championship in June, multiple sources told The Post...
The team barely broke even last season during its championship run, sources said. It is expected to lose roughly $80 million because of luxury tax fines for being over the salary cap for the upcoming season that tips off next month, a source close to the sale process said.
That figure likely will rise significantly in the 2025-26 season when harsher salary cap fines kick in.
For the record, when announcing the sale the Grousbeck family said it was for “estate planning purposes” and reiterated that in a statement by Wyc Grousbeck.
“The Grousbeck family is selling the team for estate and family planning considerations. To say the sale is in any way related to losses is completely incorrect. There has not been a capital call from ownership, or any additional investment of any kind, in the 22 years since Boston Basketball Partners bought the team and we don’t anticipate there being one.”
A lot of owners say they are willing to go into the tax and spend big if the team is in contention — Wyc Grousbeck among them — but the reality is often different. It’s not just Boston, 2023 champion Denver has shed some payroll in the face of looming taxes, this summer letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk out the door to Orlando.
The sale of the Celtics is in the early stages, with the Grousbecks selling a 51% interest. The hope — both from the Celtics and the league office — has been that the Celtics would be valued at around $6 billion for this sale, but the potential financial losses plus the fact the Celtics don’t own TD Garden (it is owned by the same group that owns the NHL’s Boston Bruins) may have that number lower, the Post reports. The most any franchise was valued in a sale was the Phoenix Suns at $4 billion when Robert Sarver sold to Mat Ishbia.
