News broke Thursday that Wyc Grousbeck is selling the Celtics to WHO for $6.1 billion, a new record for a North American sports franchise just exceeding what Josh Harris paid for the Commanders in 2023.
“I figured $5 billion, depending on what’s going on here and other teams that had been sold, but all of a sudden, you see $6.1 billion and think of the P&L of the Celtics and what they’re going to have to pay these players,” Boomer said. “There’s going to have to be some decisions on that roster.”
None of the NYC metro franchises seem to be in peril of a sale anytime soon, but this topic led Boomer to a hypothetical: if Jim Dolan wanted to sell his entire outfit – the Knicks, Rangers, AND Madison Square Garden – what astronomical price could he get?
“He sold Cablevision to Altice at the right time, and he’s got some smart people around him; whoever makes the business decisions, they know what they’re doing, and we all know what he did with The Sphere in Vegas,” Boomer said.
And when Jerry blurted out $15 billion, Boomer’s quick response was ‘maybe even more than that.’
“It’s a lot of money, but the Garden, not only the Knicks and Rangers, but all the concerts and things,” Jerry said. “It really is wild.
His dad bought this all for how much decades ago? It’s amazing.”
“Something’s worth what somebody is willing to pay, and you’d have to look at the real estate, the teams, the network…if he ever wanted to divest himself of all that, I would think that would be the most valuable property in sports today,” Boomer said. “It’s gotta be somewhere close to $20 billion, even. It’s hard to put a real figure on it, but I gotta believe it’s north of $15 billion for those three entities.”