The Haslam family’s portfolio of sports teams may be getting bigger.
According to reports from ESPN and The Athletic, Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry has agreed to sell his stake in the team to Jimmy and Dee Haslam on a valuation of $3.5 billion.
Lasry, who bought the Bucks in 2014 along with Wes Edens, reportedly has a 25 percent stake in the Bucks. Based on that $3.5 billion valuation, the Haslams will pay approximately $875 million. That’s more than the $550 million Lasry and Edens paid to buy the team nine years ago. That’s a tidy profit for less than a decade of ownership, it’s been a heckuva nine years. In that time, Fiserv Forum was constructed and opened, Giannis Antetokounmpo emerged as major star and perennial MVP candidate, and the Bucks won their first NBA title in 50 years.
The Haslams already own two major sports franchises, the Cleveland Browns and the Columbus Crew.
While the Haslams enlarging their portfolio of sports teams is significant, what’s just as (and even possibly more) interesting is that the Bucks are valued at $3.5 billion, the second-highest for any NBA team ever. The only team ahead of them is the Phoenix Suns, which were sold to Mat Ishiba in January for $4 billion. Both of those figures are just behind the $4.65 billion the Walton family paid for the Denver Broncos last year, which was the most money ever paid to own North American professional sports team.
Those $3.5 billion and $4 billion valuations are pretty big for the NBA, and a significant jump from the values of other teams sold over the past few years. Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014, and Tilman Fertitta spent $2.2 billion to purchase the Houston Rockets two years later. Joe Tsai snagged the Brooklyn Nets for $2.3 billion in 2019.
According to ESPN, the deal is not done yet and is still pending league approval.
