When news broke in March that Wyc Grousbeck was selling the Celtics to Bill Chisholm and a group of private-equity investors for $6.1 billion, Grousbeck’s stated plan was to remain as governor of the team until 2028. 

Not so fast. 

Grousbeck will not stay on as lead team governor once the agreement is completed, ESPN reported Tuesday. The two sides originally said he would stay through the 2027–28 season in the March press release announcing the deal. Chisholm will assume the role of team governor years earlier than initially planned.

Grousbeck will remain as the team’s alternate governor and CEO through the 2027–28 season, two sources familiar with the matter tell Front Office Sports. Alternate governors vote on league matters when the primary governor is absent.

The news comes as the transaction is expected to close imminently; sources recently told FOS the NBA’s board of governors is expected to vote on the deal by the end of next week.

The agreement—which set a record for the largest pro sports franchise sale in history that was quickly broken by the sale of the Lakers to Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation in June—has taken longer to obtain board approval than some other recent franchise sales. The sales of the Mavericks, Hornets, and Suns took an average of less than a month and a half to close after being announced. It’s been about five months since the Celtics deal was first announced.

The shift in the succession plan raises the question of how Jeanie Buss’s plan to remain governor of the Lakers for years after selling the team to Walter will play out.

The drawn-out Celtics and Lakers transitions were the latest in a slew of recent examples of unusual NBA team sales and succession plans. 

When Mark Cuban sold a majority of the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson in 2023, he initially said he planned to keep running basketball operations even once he was no longer the majority owner. But it became apparent by February that was not the case when the team traded Luka Dončić, and Cuban told FOS he did not know about the trade before it happened. In March, he also wrote in a (now-deleted) Facebook comment, “I fully expected to run basketball. The NBA wouldn’t let me put it in the contract. They took it out. I thought they would stick to their word because they didn’t know the first thing about running a team. Someone obviously changed their mind.” 

Meanwhile, the $1.5 billion sale of the Timberwolves to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore finally closed in June when the NBA’s board of governors unanimously approved the transfer of power, ending a saga that had dragged on for four years.

Representatives for the Celtics and Chisholm declined to comment. The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Major League Baseball’s top three economic and competitive powers are in free fall this summer, or are certainly nearing it, blunting heady expectations and big spending going into the 2025 season and spotlighting the accelerating rise of the league’s middle class. 

The Dodgers, sporting a league-record $406 million luxury-tax payroll, are just 12–18 since July 4 after Monday night’s loss to the crosstown Angels. The Mets, MLB’s No. 2 spenders at $338.6 million, are just 1–8 this month, are 18–31 since mid-June, and are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak. The $316.7 million Yankees, even after defeating the Twins on Monday, are also a losing team over the past two months, having posted a 21–31 record.

What had been widely projected to be a runaway this season by the trio of teams is now anything but. External signs from team owners, however, continue to stress patience.

“We haven’t been playing well, but I still believe in this team,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said Tuesday morning in a social media post. “I will be at Citi Field the next three games rooting the Mets on.”

Despite the recent on-field slides, all three clubs remain in playoff position, but their hold on postseason berths are more tenuous than ever. The Dodgers’ one-game lead over the Padres in the National League West division is their smallest since early June. The Yankees are clinging to the final American League wild-card position by just one game over the Guardians, MLB’s No. 25 spenders at $122 million. The Mets, similarly, are in the final NL wild-card slot with a two-game cushion over the Reds, the No. 22 spenders at $140.9 million.

The Dodgers also remain the clear betting favorite to repeat as World Series champions, but the odds gap between the club and the rest of the league has narrowed considerably. The teams just behind the Dodgers in those odds are also now almost entirely mid-market franchises such as the Brewers, Tigers, Mariners, Astros, and Blue Jays—furthering trends seen at the recent trade deadline. 

Emerging Power

The Brewers, MLB’s No. 20 spender at $141.9 million, have surged in those odds because of a tear that has included a sweep of the Mets last weekend, an active, 10-game winning streak, an 18–4 mark since the All-Star break, and a 47–16 one since Memorial Day. Milwaukee now has the league’s best record by a five-game margin.

“It’s all great, but we have bigger goals than winning 74 games or whatever it is,” said Brewers star Christian Yelich. “That’s great, but that wasn’t really our goal going into the season. We have bigger aspirations than that.”

Typically, MLB patterns tend to correlate more directly between payroll spending and the likelihood of reaching the postseason. Whether this latest situation will enter into next year’s labor talks remains to be seen, though trends are typically analyzed over longer periods of time. 

Still, there remains growing concerns across the sport about rising payroll disparities. Strong disagreement exists about how to address that, though, and well before formal bargaining begins next year between MLB and the MLB Players Association, tensions have surfaced.

UFC president Dana White says the promotion will explore raising fight compensation in the wake of its new seven-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deal with Paramount. 

“This is going to be incredible for the fighters. We’ve talked about how this is good for the fans and good for the sport, but the fighters are also big beneficiaries here,” White tells Front Office Sports. “We’ve looked to increase fighter pay whenever we could, even back in the beginning when we were losing money, and certainly will be doing so again.”

White, however, did not detail what those pay increases would be or when they would be arriving. 

UFC fighters are not unionized, and their compensation has long been a point of contention within the sport. Earlier this year, a federal judge granted final approval of a $375 million UFC fighter pay lawsuit.

Fighters typically compete on show-and-win contracts, which pay one sum for participating in an event, and a further payment for winning. Those deals can vary greatly, and many UFC stars have typically made more money from their share of pay-per-view revenue, which will not be a part of the Paramount deal.

The yearly average payment of the new media-rights deal, which begins next year, will double the $550 million that ESPN currently pays for UFC rights. 

Jake Paul, who has been a vocal critic of UFC fighter pay, believes that clarity is a good thing. “Every fighter in the UFC now has a clear picture of what the revenue is,” Paul posted on X/Twitter. “No more PPV excuses. Get your worth boys and girls.”

White also told FOS that the new media deal is “going to be huge, and we’re incredibly pumped about being in business with Paramount.”