Could the Celtics break the all-time purchase price record of any sports team in their upcoming sale?
“Why not?” owner Wyc Grousbeck said without batting an eye on CNBC in his first interview since the team announced last week it was going on the market.
The NFL’s Washington Commanders set a global high a year ago with their $6.05 billion sale.
“I have really been focusing on the championship, because it’s been a blur and it’s been so much fun, and the parade, I haven’t thought much about going forward but I am a competitive guy — why not?” said Grousbeck during the interview, his first since the team announced last Monday it was going on the market. “I mean, if you’re going to keep score, keep score on everything.”
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The Phoenix Suns set an NBA high with its $4 billion sale two years ago.
Grousbeck said there is already “a lot” of interest in a team that is in the unique position of going on the market right after its 18th NBA title earlier this month.
“You can’t buy these teams at the top — you can buy in at the bottom, you can buy them with a long rebuild,” he said. “We are poised to go after another championship and be a real contender, we’re poised for bringing everybody back. I would think there’d be interest because people would be able to start being involved in something that is at the top of the world, not at the bottom.”
The team will be sold in two chunks: the 51 percent of shares held by Grousbeck, his father Irving, and the Grousbeck family will be sold first, by the end of this year or early in 2025, followed by the remaining 49 percent held by the 19 other Boston Basketball Partners LLC by 2028.
The Grousbeck-led group bought the Celtics for $360 million in 2002. The team was valued most recently by Forbes at $4.7 billion.
Grousbeck said the team will hire bankers and advisers to steer the sale, a process that has not yet started.
“This is going to be quite a bidding process,” he said.
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Boston Basketball Partners is comprised of 21 partners, with Steve Pagliuca holding the most shares of the group after the Grousbecks. Pagliuca and the Boston-based real estate and development company Abbey Group, represented by Robert Epstein and David Epstein, are managing partners of the team.
Pagliuca, currently an alternate governor of the Celtics, announced his intention to become the majority shareholder of the team a few hours after the sale was announced.
Grousbeck confirmed that Pagliuca will be a bidder without betraying a hint of any kind of an inside edge.
“Steve has been a terrific lead partner and lead co-owner, I would say, in many ways,” Grousbeck said. “He brought Danny Ainge to the table back in the day when we were first thinking of hiring a general manager. So, Steve has been great and is a great person and we welcome [him], obviously, for sure, in the bidding process.”
A consortium of owners led by Pagliuca finished as runner-up in the bidding process for the Premier League’s Chelsea soccer team, whose $5.4 billion sale two years ago trails only the Commanders’ purchase price.
One factor working against the Celtics reaching the Commanders’ price tag is that the team doesn’t own its home arena, instead renting TD Garden from Delaware North.
The NBA, however, is on the cusp of a new $76 billion media rights deal that will boost franchise valuations which Forbes said last year averaged $3.85 billion.
Grousbeck was asked about John Henry, principal owner of Fenway Sports Group (and the Globe), being a bidder.
“I can’t comment on anyone else really but I know John is a good personal friend,” said Grousbeck, who is a partner in the FSG-led Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of sports owners who have invested in the PGA Tour. “There will be great bidders and I think we’re going to make it very proud of how it ends.”
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Grousbeck did not directly answer the question on if the family prefers a Boston-based owner.
“We haven’t even begun the process,” he said. “The family’s agreed to find a new ownership group coming that will make everyone proud of the Celtics going forward.”
Grousbeck said that the family’s decision to sell caught his partners by surprise.
“I have such a great partnership,” he said. “The true answer, really, is it is shocking, yes, it’s surprising to people but the real answer after the first moment of shock is what a great ride we’ve had. And I hope it continues one way or another. But it’s a great partnership. I mean, I could go on for hours about these partners and what we’ve done over the last 20 years.”
The Celtics’ explanation, per last week’s statement, for the sale of the Grousbecks’ shares was prompted “after considerable thought and internal discussion” by “estate and family planning considerations.”
Asked to elaborate on those “considerations,” Grousbeck did not elaborate much.
“It really just says it — it’s a family, been in a long time, loves the Celtics and at some point after 22, even 25, 26 years, you can find somebody else to come in with energy and commitment,” he said. “We’re going to try and find the right buyer.”
The original team statement said that the managing board of the ownership group expects Grousbeck to remain in place as team governor until the remaining 49 percent of shares are sold.
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Grousbeck added to the uncertainty held in the word “expects” when asked if that means he would remain the principal decision maker for the next four years.
“That’s how we planned it out, I would say that is the expectation going into this process,” he said. “Having said that, I would love for that to happen, that’s the expectation, but we’ll see what plays out and we’ll go from there.”
As recently as June 4, Grousbeck told the Globe that he had no intention of selling the team, which he said was losing money.
“I had someone call me the other day with an offer,” he said. “It happens all the time.”
His answer each time, he said, was “Not for sale.”
The team has spent freely since it won its 18th title earlier this month, including the signings of Jayson Tatum to a five-year, $314 million super-max extension and Derrick White to a four-year $126 million extension.
“I need a brace on my wrist sometimes but if you’re the Celtics ownership group, this is what you do, this is what the Celtics deserve,” Grousbeck said. “They deserve pride and they deserve support and investment and they deserve to win championships.”
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.