The speculation started online but really picked up steam when Bill Simons said on his podcast that the buzz was legitimate — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had interest in buying the Boston Celtics.
Except he doesn’t, he has no plans to bid on the Celtics, a source close to Bezos told Nick Wingfield at The Information. That source said there is “zero truth” to the rumors Bezos is interested in the iconic NBA franchise.
Bezos had been interested in getting into sports ownership before, at least exploring the idea of purchasing the NFL’s Washington Commanders at one point. There also is speculation in NBA circles he would have interest in a Seattle expansion team if — let’s be honest, it’s really when — that is approved by league owners in the coming year or so. Amazon is based out of Seattle.
However, it does not look like he wants to buy in Boston.
It was a surprise back in June when the Wyc Grousbeck and the current Celtics ownership group announced the Celtics were up for sale, although they want to do it on a gradual timeline (something the league does not want to see after the complications in the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves).
A statement from the Boston Celtics pic.twitter.com/DqArzkGnR5
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) July 1, 2024
While Forbes estimates the value of the Celtics at $4.7 billion, the valuation sale price is expected to be closer to $6 billion.
Current Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca has expressed an interest in purchasing the Grousbeck family shares, but he would have to assemble a group of buyers. Another billionaire (like Bezos) who could just write a check for the team is a cleaner sale, if there is one interested. Whoever becomes the next owner of this team will take over a championship team but one that in a few years will be very expensive and difficult to keep together under the current CBA. The hard decisions will fall to that new ownership.
That new ownership may look into building a new arena for the Celtics, one it would own. The TD Garden is owned by the group that owns the NHL’s Boston Bruins and the Celtics are rent payers without the advantages of owning their own building. The right new owner might want to change that, although, as Steve Ballmer and the Clippers showed, that is a decade-long (or more) process.
