The Boston Celtics Have Officially Been Sold For $6.1 Billion And Become The Largest Sale In North American Sports History

Billie Weiss. Getty Images.

And there it is! The Boston Celtics finally have a new owner, and it's this fella Bill Chisholm. A tough deal for Pags who I think we were all rooting for, but as they say, money talks. For starters, I am pretty surprised Wyc and his Dad ended up getting $6.1B to become the highest sale in the history of American sports. The Celtics don't even own their own arena! Usually when you pay that kind of price, you get ownership of everything. Perhaps there's plans to build a new Garden somewhere and that's why he basically paid the full asking price?

So what do we know about this guy? Considering I had no idea he even existed until basically right this second, here's the best we have

The Celtics ownership group has agreed to sell the team to William Chisholm, managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, a league source told the Globe on Thursday.

Chisholm, a Dartmouth graduate, grew up in Georgetown, Mass., and is a longtime Celtics fan.

Symphony Technology Group is a California-based private equity firm. Chisholm previously co-founded The Valent Group.

Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain governor through the ownership transition.

When the Celtics sale was announced last July, the Grousbeck family said it intended to sell 51 percent of the team in late 2024 or early 2025.

The Grousbeck family is selling the team for estate and family planning considerations.

OK, so right off the bat there are a few things I suppose I like. From the sounds of things, this dude has the money. That's always going to be the #1 factor in something like this, given how expensive the Celts are going to be for the foreseeable future. You can't be a broke bitch and be given this team. I'll call that a win.

From MA and a longtime Celtics fan? Perhaps there's a bit of pandering going on there, but fuck it that's good enough for me. Someone who understands the significance of what they just purchased and appreciates their history is in theory exactly what you want. It's what made Wyc such an awesome owner for so long. I also saw someone called him a lifelong Celtics fan with an encyclopedia of knowledge about them? OK, cool I guess? An owner just like me? I could in theory get behind that.

Wyc staying on? We know that was a big thing for him, so I wonder if that was the deciding factor (along with ya know, $6.1B). Maybe no other bids were cool with that, or maybe they all were but this was just the highest price. This does make me feel a little better about not having a Mavs situation on our hands, because for a while, Wyc will still be around.

I'll be honest though, the private equity part scares me a little bit. Isn't it thing that whatever gets touched by private equity usually goes bankrupt or ends up being some sort of disaster? Do I need to be concerned with that, because I feel like I've read that before. I guess that also could mean there's endless money I suppose, which is cool, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

More importantly, let's revisit my only rules when it came to this new owner

1. You must accept and bow down to our lord and savior Brad Stevens. He calls the shots, you do what he wants without questioning it.

2. You must be willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on luxury tax and second apron penalties to keep this roster together for as long as this current window is open

3. You believe in Mazzulla Ball and everything it stands for

4. You are not John Henry and FSG

As of now, we only have the answer to #4, which you could argue is the most important of all the rules. There is a part of me that is relieved it wasn't John Henry and FSG, but we aren't out of the woods yet. Until we see the answers to rules #1-3, nobody has any idea if this is a good choice. I think we're all optimistic, the fact that he seems rich as hell helps, the fact that he's from MA and a Celtics fan sounds nice, but the proof will be in the pudding.

Either put up the cash and stay out of the way by just doing whatever Brad Stevens says, or this could get real ugly real fast.

Wyc (aka his Dad) was easily the best Celtics owner of my lifetime as he brought me the only 2 titles I've ever seen live with my own eyes, so I'll always have love for him. Now I just hope he didn't screw us all over for the next few decades all so he could pocket a cool $6.1B. That would suck.