After more than two decades that included two NBA championships, the Boston Celtics will have a new owner.

Bill Chisholm, the managing partner of Symphony Technology Group, will buy the franchise at a $6.1 billion valuation, Boston’s current ownership group announced today.

The sale price is the highest for a North American sports franchise, topping the $6.05 billion paid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders by a group led by Josh Harris and far surpassing the $4 billion valuation of the Phoenix Suns when Mat Ishbia bought the team in 2023 — the previous high for an NBA team.

The price could also set a new baseline for NBA team sales as the league weighs whether to expand and could push prices up for those potential new franchises.

The deal still needs approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors. It will take a few months to close, according to a person involved in the agreement.

“Bill is a terrific person and a true Celtics fan, born and raised here in the Boston area,” Wyc Grousbeck, the Celtics’ current governor and CEO, said in a statement. “His love for the team and the city of Boston along with his chemistry with the rest of the Celtics leadership make him a natural choice to be the next governor and controlling owner of the team.”

Chisholm, who said he has been “a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life,” grew up on Boston’s North Shore and attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He specifically named the team president, Brad Stevens, and coach Joe Mazzulla as partners he looks forward to working with.

Sixth Street, a private equity firm, is also buying a portion of the team and will put in more than $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the terms. The firm bought into the San Antonio Spurs in 2021 and is now one of three firms with investments in multiple NBA franchises.

Grousbeck will remain in his roles through the 2027-28 NBA season, he confirmed in the statement, and will continue to oversee team operations.

Stephen Pagliuca, a current Celtics minority owner, and Stan Middleman, a minority owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, were among the other bidders for the Celtics. Stevens met with the final four sales candidates in the final month preceding the sale, according to league sources.

Pagliuca had been considered the recent favorite.

Pagliuca, who has been a minority owner since partnering with the Grousbeck family in 2002, said in a statement that his group had no debt or private equity money that could “potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future.”

“We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics,” he said. “It is a bid of true fans, deeply connected to Boston’s community, and we’ve been saddened to find out that we have not been selected in the process.”

The Celtics went on sale last July, just days after the franchise won its latest NBA title. The Grousbeck-led group bought the Celtics for $360 million and now sells it for nearly 20 times as much.

Boston is the ninth NBA team to have a controlling ownership sale since 2019, as team owners cash out for large returns.

Chisholm will take over the franchise when it is enjoying immense success but will also face difficult questions. The Celtics will exceed the luxury tax for the fourth consecutive season in 2025-26 if their payroll stays at or near its current level. With increasingly punitive repeater tax rates set to kick in next season as a part of the current collective bargaining agreement, keeping the current group of players together could mean a roster that costs more than $400 million in total payroll plus taxes.

“I trust Wyc and Pags and those guys in their decision,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said last week about the sale. “And understanding the culture that we’ve set and we have, and sustaining that and trying to make it better. We’ve got some great people in this organization and on this team, and we’ve worked really hard to build something special. I trust that they’ll make the right decisions in whoever that next group is.”

Chisholm was a co-founder of Symphony Technology Group and serves as the managing partner and chief investment officer, leading the company’s investment portfolio. The creative software company Avid, based in the Boston suburb Burlington, was included in that portfolio as of 2023. The company also led a consortium that purchased SurveyMonkey in March 2023.

Chisholm has connections to the current Celtics ownership group, as Symphony Technology Group previously sold the background check solutions provider First Advantage to Silver Lake Partners, which was co-founded by Glenn Hutchins of the outgoing Celtics ownership group.

Chisholm also worked at Bain & Co., which has connections to Pagliuca’s Bain Capital.

This sale is a breakthrough for the NBA, which has been considering expansion and needed the Celtics to sell for a significant amount to catalyze adding more teams to the league. Las Vegas and Seattle have been considered front-runners for new franchises.

The NBA now has validation in listing new franchises for a more significant expansion fee, which would then be distributed to the league’s owners.

Early in the sales process, league sources expressed concern that the bidding was well under projections. Grousbeck and the ownership group eventually got what they wanted, even though the deal does not include TD Garden, which is owned by the Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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