Re: Bye Bye Mr Gaston

[Sean Giovanello <sean.giovanello@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From Bruce Allen's site:

Some breaking news this afternoon, the Boston Celtics are being sold.

From the breaking news section on Boston.com:

"Celtics owner Paul Gaston is selling his 48.3 percent stake of the team 
for $360 million to a partnership that includes venture capitalists 
*Wycliffe K. Grousbeck* <http://www.hcp.com/team/grousbec.htm> of 
*Highland Capital Partners* <http://www.hcp.com/>and *Stephen Pagliuca* 
<http://www.baincapital.com/team/team.asp?list=True&id=28> , a managing 
director of *Bain Capital* <http://www.baincapital.com/>. The deal is 
subject to NBA approval. A 3 p.m. press conference is planned."

It appears WEEI was first on this story, with Dale Arnold breaking the 
news sometime around 1:30. WWZN followed up a few moments later. As WWZN 
is the official radio home of the Celtics, you would think they would 
have it first. Arnold was first to get the details from Boston.com which 
you see above. He also has Steve Bulpett on the line almost immediately 
who was watching the Ryder cup and now has to go to work. From the 
websites linked above, both the guys mentioned appear to be fairly young 
guys. Eddie Andelman brought in Steve Burton who said channel 4 will be 
covering the press conference, and WWZN was attempting to get Jackie 
MacMullan on the line as well.

This whole process sure seemed to slip below the radar of anyone.

There is also now a more complete story on *Boston.com* 
<http://boston.com/sports/celtics/news/092702_celtics_sold.htm>, which 
includes this information: "Wyc Grousbeck apparently has wanted to own a 
Boston sports team for awhile. In March, Globe business columnist Steve 
Bailey reported that former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette tried 
to stay with the team by telling the new owners that he could bring big 
money to the deal.

According to Bailey's sources, Duquette put bidders Tom Werner and Les 
Otten together with Grousbeck, who was offering to invest as much as 
$125 million in the team. (Duquette wanted to move up to president for 
his role as matchmaker.) The talks evaporated when Florida Marlins owner 
John Henry showed up with his millions, Bailey reported."

Another wire report <http://www.wral.com/sports/1691154/detail.html> has 
this: "The other partners are H. Irving Grousbeck, a co-founder of 
Continental Cablevision, and Stephen Pagliuca, managing director of Bain 
Capital.

"We are delighted to reach this agreement, but we fully understand that 
nobody really owns the Celtics except the people and basketball fans of 
Boston, the state of Massachusetts and New England," Wycliffe Grousbeck 
said in a statement. "We look forward to years of involvement with one 
of the greatest sports teams ever."

Isaac Robbins wrote:


> Holy Crap!!!
>
> Too bad this didn't happen before we lost Rogers, et al.
>
> Venture Capitalists, eh? Any chance they'll be venturing a little 
> capital to get this team a point guard? Anybody know about the people 
> involved in the partnership... are they fans? can they run the fast 
> break?
>
> Change is good.
>
> I hope.
>
>
>
>
> On Friday, September 27, 2002, at 02:11 PM, Tammo29@AOL.com wrote:
>
>
> > http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/0927/1437650.html
> >
> > Friday, September 27
> >
> > Sale still awaiting league approval
> > ESPN.com news services
>
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