An NBA franchise is advancing toward a $4 billion sale with Milwaukee Bucks minority owner and Avenue Capital founder Marc Lasry heading the acquisition group, according to transaction filings reviewed this week. The deal, pending league approval, would mark the fourth NBA team sale above $3.5 billion since 2023 and place Lasry in primary control of a second major-market franchise while maintaining his stake in Milwaukee.
The transaction cleared initial ownership committee review in December and entered formal diligence in early January. Lasry's group includes three family offices with prior sports holdings and one sovereign wealth vehicle new to North American team ownership. The $4 billion price represents a 22% premium to the franchise's last minority-stake valuation eighteen months ago, when a 7% slice moved at a $3.28 billion implied basis. League officials expect the full ownership vote in March, with closing targeted for May if no governance objections surface.
The sale matters because it establishes a new valuation floor for large-market franchises and tests the NBA's cross-league ownership stance. Lasry already owns a minority piece of the Bucks, acquired in 2014 at a then-record $550 million whole-team valuation. His move to primary control of a different team while retaining Milwaukee exposure creates a precedent the league has historically resisted but never explicitly barred. Two owners currently hold minority stakes across multiple NBA teams; none hold majority control in one franchise while keeping minority exposure in another.
The $4 billion price also resets expansion economics. The league is preparing to announce two expansion teams by mid-2025, with Seattle and Las Vegas the presumed markets. Internal league projections have used a $3.5 billion entry fee per team, but this sale suggests $4 billion is the new benchmark. Each existing team would receive roughly $133 million per expansion slot at that price, distributed over three years. For context, the last expansion round in 2004 brought Charlotte back at $300 million; adjusted for franchise appreciation rates, that entry would price near $2.8 billion today.
Lasry's buyer group includes a European industrial family office that holds equity in two Premier League clubs, a Middle Eastern sovereign fund with no current sports holdings, and a West Coast tech family office that backed a recent NWSL expansion bid. Avenue Capital, Lasry's hedge fund, is not involved in the financing. The seller is a three-family consortium that acquired the team in 2019 for $2.35 billion and is exiting to focus on international real estate. One family will retain a 3% non-voting stake.
The franchise's local market generates roughly $425 million in annual revenue, with a new arena lease locked through 2035 and a regional sports network deal expiring in 2027. League revenue-sharing puts the team's net operating income near $80 million annually before debt service. The $4 billion sale price implies a 50x EBITDA multiple, high for a sports asset but consistent with recent NBA deals. Phoenix sold for $4 billion in February 2023; Dallas was valued at $3.5 billion in a 2023 minority transaction that gave the Adelson family future majority control.
Three items to watch: the league's formal cross-ownership ruling in the March vote, which could force Lasry to divest his Bucks stake or structure the new holding through a blind trust; the expansion fee announcement, likely within six weeks of this deal closing; and the franchise's RSN negotiation, which begins in earnest once ownership transfers.
The seller's IRR on the five-year hold lands near 11% annualized, assuming a May close. Lasry's Avenue Capital exited a distressed European media investment in December, freeing roughly $1.2 billion in dry powder. He sat courtside at the All-Star Game last February next to the league's expansion committee chair.
The takeaway
**$4B** NBA sale sets new valuation floor ahead of expansion, with cross-league ownership test in March vote.
nbaownershipvaluationexpansionlasrycross-league
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