The Celtics ownership group has agreed to sell the team to William Chisholm, managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, for a record $6.1 billion, a league source told the Globe on Thursday. The sale is pending approval by the NBA Board of Governors.
The sale is the highest sum paid for a North American sports team in history, surpassing the $6.05 billion Josh Harris paid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Chisholm, a Dartmouth graduate, grew up in Georgetown, Mass., and is a longtime Celtics fan. Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain governor and continue to oversee team operations through the 2027-28 season.
The new ownership group also includes Boston business executives such as current Celtics co-owner Robert Hale, Bruce Beal Jr., president of Related Companies, and the global investment firm, Sixth Street, according to industry sources.
Just weeks after the Celtics won their 18th NBA championship last June, the Grousbeck family announced that the team was going up for sale for estate and family planning purposes. The family was the lead investor in the group that purchased the team for $360 million in 2002.
For months, Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca was the only person to publicly state his intentions of being part of the bidding process. But in recent weeks a group of finalists emerged that included Pagliuca, Chisholm, Philadelphia Phillies co-owner Stan Middleman, and The Friedkin Group.
According to a person close to Chisholm, he is a lifelong Celtics fan with an “encyclopedic knowledge” of the team. Although Symphony Technology Group is based in California, Chisholm owns a home on Nantucket, and the source said that Chisholm was intending to buy a home in Boston if he was awarded the team.
The Celtics players have mostly been isolated from the process. But All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, for one, is hoping the new ownership group is able to maintain organizational stability.
“I look forward to whoever it is,” Tatum said this week. “I trust [Grousbeck] and those guys in their decision. And understanding the culture that we’ve set and we have, and sustaining that and trying to make it better.
“We’ve got some great people in this organization and on this team and we’ve worked really hard to build something special. I trust that they’ll make the right decisions in whoever that next group is.”
The Grousbecks purchased the Celtics for $360 million in 2002.
Chisholm will have to grapple with record-breaking payroll and a huge luxury-tax bill while the franchise loses out on some revenue streams by not owning its home arena. (Delaware North, run by longtime Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, owns TD Garden.).
Tatum agreed to the largest contract in NBA history (five years, $315 million) last summer. Jaylen Brown is in the second year of a five-year deal worth $304 million, and Derrick White is locked in for four years and $126 million.
Tatum and Brown are set to make more than $50 million apiece in 2025-26, and the Celtics will likely owe more than $200 million in luxury tax. The Celtics’ payroll and tax payments that season are projected to be the highest in NBA history.
This story will be updated.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
