Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez had to go to court, fighting former owner Glen Taylor over the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. Last June, Lore/Rodriguez were finally approved as the new owners and took control of the franchise.
Now Lore is stepping way back, selling his controlling interest in the team and the Lynx to American businessman Marc Stad at a franchise valuation of $4.5 billion, a story first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN and quickly confirmed by other reports out of Minnesota.
Stad was a minority investor in the Lore/Rodriguez ownership group, now he and Lore are essentially switching places, with Rodriguez taking on a slightly larger stake — this will be the Stad/Rodriguez ownership group now. Marc’s wife, Elisa Stad, will take over as team governor, according to Charania. She has a corporate executive background with a focus on consumer branding.
Rodriguez will remain the public face of the ownership group and be heavily involved with both the Timberwolves and Lynx, according to the reports.
Which means there will be little change on the ground for the franchise. For example, the plans to find a location and build a new arena for the Timberwolves in the Twin Cities will remain — this is not an ownership change where the new guy seems to want to move the team, as feels like the case in Portland. There are no planned shakeups on the basketball side of operations. Ultimately, this should feel more like a reorganization of the ownership group than a dramatic sale, as is ongoing with the Los Angeles Lakers.
That said, Lore is flipping his shares for a nice profit, the team had a valuation of $1.5 billion when he and Rodriguez agreed to a purchase price in 2021. Lore reportedly will step back from the basketball teams to focus on taking Wonder, a food delivery and takeout business he is leading through a public IPO process.
Stad is the founder and managing partner of Dragoneer Investment Group, which manages more than $35 billion in capital, according to Forbes.
Lore and Rodriguez agreed to buy the Timberwolves and Lynx from Taylor back in 2021 for a valuation of $1.5 billion, but it was an unusual three-part installment plan. When it came time for the third installment in 2024 and for Lore/Rodriguez to take control of the team, Taylor tried to pull out of the deal, saying Lore/Rodriguez had not lived up to the terms of the sale. That led to a war of words and then a war of lawyers in court, with Lore/Rodriguez ultimately winning and taking full control of the team last June.
Lore made significant changes in how the franchise was run, not the least of which was mending fences with Timberwolves icon Kevin Garnett. KG’s No. 21 will finally be retired this season. Lore also paid up to recruit head of basketball operations Tim Connelly from Denver, and he built a roster that reached two consecutive Western Conference Finals. This past offseason, Connelly made a major and aggressive pivot for the organization, bringing in LaMelo Ball via trade to pair with Anthony Edwards. Under the new ownership, Connelly will still have the freedom to be aggressive in pursuit of winning.
While the Board of Governors must approve this sale, with Stad already being vetted as a minority owner of the team, this will be more of a formality.
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