After striking out in his bid to purchase the New York Mets, Alex Rodriguez is closing in on becoming an owner of another professional sports team. Actually, make that two teams.
In tandem with eCommerce billionaire Marc Lore, Rodriguez is nearing a deal to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx from majority owner Glen Taylor for a price in the range of $1.5 billion.
Though a sale has not been completed, the 14-time All-Star and Lore have signed an exclusive letter of intent with Taylor, and the two parties now have 30 days to finalize an agreement. A stipulation of the deal is that the Timberwolves and Lynx will remain in Minnesota for the foreseeable future.
Taylor, who bought the T-Wolves for $88 million in 1994 after the team nearly moved to New Orleans, will “ease the transition” by making the new ownership group serve as limited partners before giving up control of the team in 2023.
The Timberwolves, like most pro sports teams, have dramatically increased in value since the mid-1990s.
“We look forward to entering this phase of the process with Glen Taylor,” Rodriguez and Lore said in a joint statement on Saturday, according to ESPN. “Our respect for him and the legacy he has built lays an amazing foundation for what is to come. We are excited by the prospect of getting to know the Timberwolves organization.”
To take control of the team, Lore and Rodriguez — who are 50/50 partners in the venture — would have to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors before officially joining the organization.
Taylor, 79, has been close to selling his franchises in the past but has never been able to pull the trigger. Based on what he told The Athletic, it sounds like it will be a different story this time around.
“To me the odds that it would happen were always very small,” Taylor told the publication. “Then all of a sudden it comes up that I have a buyer and they’re very interested and thinking about the long run and they will give me some time to hand it over, give me some time to show what our people can do, if they like them or not. They’re all things that are important to me. I like how they think and how they treat people and how they think about working with people. I like that they’re both really, really competitive personalities.”
Currently in last place in the entire NBA, the Timberwolves (who have one playoff appearance since 2004) could certainly benefit from the injection of some competitive juice.
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