Latest news with #Pagliuca
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why the Boston Celtics' new ownership could be a bad omen for all sports fans
The Boston Celtics, who have won more NBA championships than any other team, were sold for $6.1 billion last week, the most money ever for a professional sports franchise in North America. But outgoing minority owner Steve Pagliuca, whose bid was rejected, suggested the sale could mean bad news for the team's faithful fans because of the private equity money reportedly going into the purchase. The team is being bought by a group led by Bill Chisholm, managing partner of private equity firm Symphony Technology Group. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that Sixth Street, a Boston private equity firm, is putting $1 billion toward the purchase. Pagliuca believes his offer was better, and he dropped a warning all sports fans should take note of. 'We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price, befitting the best sports fans in the world, and with all the capital coming from individuals who are fully committed to winning on and off the court,' Pagliuca wrote on X Thursday. 'We had no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics.' Pagliuca is likely disappointed that his offer was spurned for a group of Johnny-come-latelies. Still, his calling out private equity money should raise eyebrows because he himself is a senior adviser at Bain Capital. Pagliuca is telling Celtics fans that there's a conflict between the interests of private equity money and a commitment to winning. If anyone would know about the mindset at private equity firms, he would. He's a private equity guy who knows what such firms want, and he sees that as enough of a potential challenge for the Celtics to say so publicly — before NBA owners vote to approve the sale. Sixth Street already owns a piece of the San Antonio Spurs and landed a deal for 10% of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants the same week as the Celtics purchase. A faceless, big-money group owning a sliver of the Celtics may not immediately cause alarm. But we're witnessing a creeping shift in sports ownership that could have big future implications. Most American pro teams are still owned by individuals, families or investor groups that combine the two. For better or worse, owners are often the faces of their franchises. That's why their personalities become associated with their teams' personalities and why fans and journalists hold them personally accountable when their teams stink or there's some scandal. Everybody knows Jerry Jones owns the Dallas Cowboys and Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots. As for the Celtics, outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck sat in front of cameras himself to announce he was suspending then-Celtics coach Ime Udoka for having a personal relationship with a team employee. When Grousbeck's group bought the Celtics in 2002, the team was struggling. It hadn't won a championship in 16 years. Grousbeck will be remembered in Boston for drafting superstars like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and assembling rosters that made it to four NBA Finals and won two championships. Nothing's to say that private equity owners won't have similar success, but as Pagliuca must know, such firms are best known for cold-blooded efficiency. We've seen them downsize companies however they can: cutting salaries, selling off underperforming units, mass layoffs and holding fire sales on real estate. Do such firms expect that business model to translate to pro sports, where profits depend on television broadcast contracts, sponsorship deals, revenue sharing and sweetheart arena leases struck with local officials who consider teams civic assets right along with public water infrastructure? Will such investors be as willing to spend up to the NBA's salary cap or to exceed it with 'luxury tax' spending? Might they be even more cutthroat than some individual owners have been about relocating teams if local officials and taxpayers balk at building new stadiums or arenas? Or will the opposite be true and their billions kick off a spending spree that sends player salaries further into the stratosphere. Answers to those questions are forthcoming because private equity ownership of U.S. sports teams is likely to expand. In the case of the San Francisco Giants' Sixth Street deal, financial details weren't disclosed, but with the team valued at a reported $4.2 billion, that would mean a $420 million cash infusion to a franchise that plays in a league with no salary cap. Last year, the NFL, for the first time, approved the sale of as much as 10% of teams' equity to a list of approved private equity investors, with Sixth Street among them. Last month, the New York Giants' owners said they're looking into selling a minority stake, and you can be sure all the approved firms are taking a look. One way or another, most sports fans will soon know just how many strings are attached to private equity firms' purses, and whether they care more about winning and entertaining their fans or squeezing out a profit. This article was originally published on
Boston Globe
21-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Why not Pags? It seems odd that Steve Pagliuca's Celtics ownership bid was turned down, and other thoughts.
Swell. So here's just one little question? Why not 'Pags'? 'Pags' is Steve Pagliuca, a Bain Capital billionaire, local philanthropist, basketball insider, and managing general partner and co-owner of the Celtics since Irving Grousbeck and his family led a group that purchased the Celtics for $360 million in December 2002. Advertisement When it was announced last summer that the Celtics were for sale, Pags immediately stepped forward. He put together a group that Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up I reached out to 90-year-old Irv Grousbeck Thursday. For a quarter of a century, the elder Grousbeck has been silent, Salinger-esque atop the Celtics masthead. Irv holds all the cards but never comments on his hand. On Thursday, he responded to my email inquiry stating, 'Bill [Chisholm] checks all of the boxes to represent the Celtics going forward. I defer to Wyc for any further comments.' 'Why not Pags?' I followed. 'Seems to check all the boxes and would make fans super comfortable.' 'Our goal was always to take the best bid from a suitable buyer, and that's what we did,' responded Irv Grousbeck. So, there you go. And that's that. Advertisement The Grousbecks did not feel that way. The Globe has learned that the Chisholm bid was higher than Pagliuca's. Not seeing the offer sheets, and not knowing which package had more guaranteed financing, it's impossible to measure the offers. That is what the Grousbecks do. So, was it just about the highest number? Perhaps not. I believe control and personalities were involved in this decision. Since the team's been for sale, Wyc Grousbeck has made it clear he wished to stay on as CEO and governor of the Celtics after selling. According to Thusday's statement, he's been granted this by Chisholm. Sorry, but this just seems odd. Why would you pay $6.1 billion for the Celtics, then let the former owner run the team for three seasons? If you buy my Rolls-Royce, are you going to let me drive it for the next three years? Finally, we have the awkward mix of personalities. Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca hardly knew one another before joining to purchase the team in 2002. Self-made Pagliuca came into the deal with his own money but was ever-marginalized by Grousbeck, who brought a much smaller amount to the table but had controlling interest due to his dad's immense wealth. Pagliuca never commented about the disproportion of investment, and Wyc Grousbeck happily became identified as the team's owner for more than two decades. It was only after the sale was announced last summer Advertisement 'Wyc was clear from the beginning that the other owners would be in the back of the bus,' said a well-sourced insider. 'He would be the face of the team. Pags was boxed out and never given the mic.' This was obvious when Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca interacted with the public and the media. Wyc loves the bright lights and it was hard for Pags to get his hand near the Larry O'Brien Trophy in those championship celebrations. Reached via text late Thursday afternoon, Wyc responded to my 'why not Pags?' question: 'Steve has always been a good friend and partner. We have done great stuff together. The professional advisers my family brought in to run the very serious process recommended to the family that one bid stood apart from the rest when all the final bids were in. I have texted warmly back and forth with Steve today and he wrote he will support us doing the deal that was chosen. He's been a fantastic friend and partner, actually. We will always be friends." ⋅ Quiz: 1. Name five players who led the majors in homers two or more times since 2000; 2. Name four Hockey Hall of Fame goalies who played at least part of their careers with the Bruins after 1960 (answers below). ⋅ Golden Bachelor Bill Belichick's sudden social media presence has an unsettling, Britney Spears feel to it. It feels like something that might have happened if there'd been Instagram in Vincent Van Gogh's later years. According to multiple reports, the Hoodie (73 next month) asked his North Carolina bosses to include his 23-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, 'on anything you send to me.' This is not the secretive, in-command coach we knew in Foxborough for 24 seasons. NFL owners who passed on Belichick may feel they dodged something. Advertisement ⋅ The Dodgers' goodwill trip to Japan this past week kindled memories of the 2008 Red Sox. Like this year's Dodgers, the Sox were defending world champs when they embarked on a grueling trip over the North Pole in the spring of '08. Those Sox (a traveling party of 160 including families, staff, and media) left Fort Myers, Fla., after a spring training day game, flew to Chicago, refueled, then took a 12-hour flight aboard a 382-seat Boeing 747. Team physician Larry Ronan prepped the players by recommending knee-high compression socks and advised the athletes to avoid alcohol and try to stay awake for the entire flight. Flying over the North Pole, manager Terry Francona got up from his card game to use the restroom, and walked past a reclined, snoozing Dr. Ronan, who was wearing a Zorro mask and had two empty mini-bottles of wine on his tray table. 'My favorite memory of the Japan trip,' recalled Francona. The trip was a nightmare. Like this year's Dodgers, the Sox played two exhibition games vs. Japanese teams, then two regular-season games (against the A's) in the Tokyo Dome. The Dodgers this past week played two games against the Cubs that counted. When the '08 Sox left Japan, they took a nine-hour flight to Los Angeles, then played two more exhibition games against the Dodgers, encountering a young sensation named Clayton Kershaw. After LA, they flew to Oakland, resumed their major league season, then went to Toronto for a three-game weekend series against the Blue Jays, losing all three. Boston made six errors and was outscored, 17-6, in the final two games in Toronto. Advertisement 'Everything we were trying to do that spring was secondary to that trip,' remembered Francona. 'It was start, stop, start. It was a total circus. We had cement in our shoes. It was the worst road trip in the history of the game.' ⋅ The starting quarterback of the 2025 New York Football Giants could be Aaron Rodgers. Or it could be Shedeur Sanders. Hmm. Whatever happened to Y.A. Tittle? ⋅ Tony Allen — drafted by Danny Ainge in 2004 and a member of the 2008 world champion Celtics — had his number retired by the Memphis Grizzlies last weekend. A defensive demon who started a little more than half the games he played in his NBA career, Allen never averaged at least 10 points a game in seven seasons with the Grizz. He's the Memphis 'Loscy.' Former Celtic Tony Allen's number was retired by the Grizzlies last weekend. Brandon Dill/Associated Press ⋅ The NCAA's women's basketball selection committee goofed by putting USC and UConn in the same bracket. This puts UConn's Paige Bueckers on a collision course with USC's JuJu Watkins for a potential Elite Eight game in Spokane. The women's tournament would be much better served if that game ended up being played for the national championship, or at least a Final Four game. When UConn and USC played in December ( ⋅ West Virginia's men's team gets to cry loudest about being 'snubbed' this year. The Mountaineers lost their spot to a North Carolina team that went 1-12 against 'Quad 1 opponents' (good teams, evidently). ⋅ Alex Verdugo, who made $8.7 million in his walk year with the Yankees last season, did not light up the free agent market and settled for a $1.5 million, one-year deal with the Braves Thursday. ⋅ Speaking of Red Sox alums, the galactically annoying Kiké Hernández is tied for the major league lead in homers after going deep for the Dodgers in the Tokyo Dome Wednesday against the Cubs. Meanwhile, 36-year-old Craig Kimbrel hopes to join the Braves bullpen for his 16th big league season. With a clean ninth inning and a three-run lead against a bad team, there was never a better compiler of meaningless saves than Kimbrel. All other situations were a sweaty roll of the dice. Former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel is looking to catch on with the Braves. The Boston Globe/Boston Globe ⋅ The 2-0 Dodgers are taking aim at the MLB record of 116 regular-season wins. ⋅ Ben Rice — Dartmouth's greatest gift to the Yankees since Jim Beattie — went into this weekend with five spring training homers for the Bronx Bombers. ⋅ Imagine heads exploding at league headquarters in New York if the Cavaliers and Thunder advance to an NBA Finals that no one would watch. ⋅ Gotta love Northern Ireland's Rory McElroy winning The Players Championship on St. Patrick's Day in Florida Monday. Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy won The Players Championship on St. Patrick's Day. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press ⋅ Next month marks the 50th anniversary of Bill Rodgers's stunning victory in the 1975 Marathon. Wearing white cotton painter's gloves and Steve Prefontaine's shoes, Boston Billy (a native of Hartford) shocked the world with a 2:09:55 race, which at the time was the fourth-fastest ever run. It would be the first of four Boston victories for the local legend. ⋅ The stunning sports needlepoint work of former Harvard goalie and Bruins goalie coach Joe Bertagna is on display on TD Garden's sixth level between suites 645 and 646 from now until the end of the playoffs. ⋅ Baseball fans might want to make their way Sunday to the West Newton Cinema for a 12:30 p.m. showing of 'Eephus,' a 98-minute fictional feature film directed by Nashua's Carson Lund, set in Douglas in the 1990s, centering on two recreational teams meeting for the last time in the history of Soldier Field. After the film, there'll be a panel discussion with Bill Lee (he threw an eephus pitch to Tony Perez in the 1975 World Series) and yours truly. Tickets are $20. ⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Aaron Judge, Chris Davis, Jose Bautista, Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez; 2: Rogie Vachon, Gerry Cheevers, Bernie Parent, Jacques Plante. Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
USA Today
21-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Report: Fully financed offer on table from another buyer for Celtics if deal falls apart
Report: Fully financed offer on table from another buyer for Celtics if deal falls apart With the major news dropping Thursday of the sale of the Boston Celtics to William Chisholm, there was also news that if the deal were to fall apart, there's a bigger deal on the table. According to WCVB, current Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca had a reported fully financed deal on the table to buy the team, but current owner and governor Wyc Grousbeck chose to take the offer from Chisholm, which is reportedly for $7.3 billion and is the biggest sale of a sports franchise in North American history. Duke Castiglione of SportsCenter 5 reported that the deal with Chisholm is not fully financed, which is important to note in regard to Pagliuca's pursuit of purchasing the team. Following the news of the sale, Pagliuca released a statement, with one eye-opening statement that the offer he had on the table was fully financed. "We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price, befitting the best sports fans in the world, and with all the capital coming from individuals who are fully committed to winning on and off the court. We had no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics. It is a bid of true fans, deeply connected to Boston's community, and we've been saddened to find out that we have not been selected in the process." While it may be unlikely, it is essential to remember that the deal from Pagliuca is still on the table if the deal with Chisholm falls apart. For now, it is Chisholm who will be the new team owner, with Wyc Grousbeck also agreeing to remain on as governor and CEO for the first three years of the deal. Listen to the "Celtics Lab" podcast on: Apple Podcasts: Spotify:
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Here's what ‘saddened' Steve Pagliuca said after Celtics were sold to William Chisholm
Here's what Pagliuca had to say about the sale in a statement released Thursday. 'Since the Grousbeck family announced it would sell the Boston Celtics almost 9 months ago I have worked tirelessly to put together a strong bid centered around the great majority of existing owners of the team, who understand and appreciate what it means to be a steward of the Boston Celtics, a team steeped in Championship tradition. Additionally, I recruited new partners with deep resources and expertise in technology and international markets to maximize the Celtics' successes to ensure we can always compete for Championships, luxury taxes be damned. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here's my statement on today's news. — Steve Pagliuca (@pagsceltics) Advertisement 'We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price, befitting the best sports fans in the world, and with all the capital coming from individuals who are fully committed to winning on and off the court. We had no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics. It is a bid of true fans, deeply connected to Boston's community, and we've been saddened to find out that we have not been selected in the process. Related : 'I want to thank all of the players and fans over these many years that have supported us in rebuilding the team and winning two championships. We couldn't have done any of this without you. As the grandson of Italian immigrants who came to America with only their willingness to work hard to be part of the American dream, I am thankful that I have been able to be part of the Celtics history and legacy, and I will be forever grateful for all the memories along the way. Advertisement 'As Red Auerbach said, 'the Celtics are not just a basketball team, but a way of life,' and my family and I will continue to be lifelong fans and cherish the honor of being part of the organization for so many years. I will never stop being a Celtic, and if the announced transaction does not end up being finalized, my partners and I are ready to check back into the game and bring it home, to help continue what the Celtics do best — win. 'Let's go Celtics!' Amin Touri can be reached at
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Steve Pagliuca's time at Bain Capital helped shape the Boston Celtics
In the midst of all the cloak and dagger secrecy surrounding the potential sale of the Boston Celtics, lost in the shuffle of current minority owner and aspiring majority owner Steve Pagliuca is how his experience with Bain Capital has played a role in the Celtics hanging a pair of banners in the rafters of TD Garden. Pagliuca recently took some time to sit down for an interview with the folks behind the "Bloomberg Originals" YouTube channel for their "The Deal" show. Cohosts Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly took a deep dive into how Pags' leadership approach has helped morph Boston into the behemoth of a ball club that it is today, and more. Check it out below! If you enjoy this pod, check out the "How Bout Them Celtics," "First to the Floor," "Celtics Lab," and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network. Listen to the "Celtics Lab" podcast on: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: How Steve Pagliuca's time at Bain Capital helped shape the Celtics
