The ownership of the Timberwolves appears to be changing again, barely a year after the NBA approved the sale to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore.
Last June, the $1.5 billion sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves from Glen Taylor to an investment group led by e-commerce entrepreneur Lore and former baseball star Rodriguez gained NBA approval, finalizing a complex and contentious process more than four years after the deal was reached.
Now, ESPN's NBA insider Shams Charania is reporting that business leader Marc Stad has completed a deal to become the controlling owner and largest shareholder of the Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
Charnia says that Stad is buying the majority of co-owner Marc Lore’s stake at a $4.5 billion valuation. Stad had previously been a limited partner in the group with Lore and Rodriguez, but now takes on the largest share of the franchise.
It appears Rodriguez will remain as part of the ownership group, however. Lore and Rodriguez were co-chairman of the ownership group.
Lore and Shad are essentially swapping roles, according to multiple sources.
Lore, Rodriguez and Shad issued a joint statement Friday expressing their commitment to the current leadership in the organization including chief executive officer Matt Caldwell, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, and Lynx president of basketball operations and head coach Cheryl Reeve.
WCCO sports host Henry Lake says that Lore's position in the franchise became untenable, and his other business interests had been facing difficulty.
"When you are elevated into a position of being in the ownership group, and being owners of a sports team, you have to have deep pockets," says Lake. "Not just a billion here, a billionaire, you have to have much deeper pockets than that."
According to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski, Lore will remain a part of the ownership group, but will only do so in a limited role. He also reports Rodriguez will remain the more visible, public-facing owner of the team with Stad remaining in the background.
"He will certainly be the final call," Krawczynski says of Stad. "He will make real decisions behind the scenes and hirings and trades and all those things he's signing off on. But I do think that if Wolves fans are going to be expecting to see Marc's dad, like you saw Marc Lore early on in his tenure, that's probably not going to happen."
Stad is 47-years-old and the founder of San Francisco-based Dragoneer Investment Group, an investment firm with over $35 billion in assets under management, according to LinkedIn. The firm specializes in technology investments, and he is a California-native.
"He has been essentially the three kind of partner in this group for several years now," Krawczynski adds. "I was told that he was involved in the LeBron recruiting a little bit for an outside thing. He's kind of been around the team and talked to Tim Connolly a lot."
Krawczynki also says Stad's wife, Elisa, will be the primary person at the table for the franchise so that he can concentrate on his Dragoneer business.
The deal has not been finalized, and all NBA ownership changes must be approved by the league's Board of Governors.
The franchise has been in an ownership churn ever since Minnesota businessman Glen Taylor, who has owned the team since 1994, put them up for sale in 2021. Taylor and the Lore-Rodriguez group ended up in arbitration after the initial deal to purchase the franchise, with Taylor claiming in March 2024 that the teams were “no longer for sale.”
Taylor said at the time that the 90-day "closing" on the purchase of the franchise by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez had expired without a purchase agreement being fulfilled. Arbitrators eventually ruled in favor of Rodriguez-Lore, finalizing the deal which was approved by the NBA.
The following is a joint statement from Marc Stad, Alex Rodriguez, and Marc Lore:
"We have been working together for years with a shared goal of building the Timberwolves and Lynx into the best organization in basketball on and off the floor. Our priority is and always will be championships. Our new agreement, pending league approval, is an evolution of the partnership we have built together and strengthening of our commitment to our team and our culture. We will continue to work closely with Matt Caldwell, Tim Connelly, Chris Finch and Cheryl Reeve and want to thank the fans and entire Minnesota community for your continued support. While we’re proud of the great work we’ve done, there’s so much more to do and we’re just getting started."
Franchise co-chairman Alex Rodriguez is expected to remain in his role with the organization
Franchise co-chairman Alex Rodriguez is expected to remain in his role with the organization
