The NBA Board of Governors will decide if the sales go through.
The National Basketball Association’s Board of Governors meeting in mid-September is going to feature some interesting discussions. There should be an update on expansion and a discussion of two potential franchise sales, the transaction between Mark Walter and the Bob Iger-Josh Kushner group with Walter selling his Los Angeles Lakers franchise to Iger and Kushner. The other is the potential sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise from Marc Lore to Marc Stad for a reported $4.5 billion. In June 2025, Alex Rodriguez and Lore ended up with controlling interest of the Minnesota Timberwolves business as well as the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Lynx franchise after a long battle with Glen Taylor over who really had control of the two businesses.
Lore and Rodriguez, announced that the Timberwolves-Lynx businesses needed a new arena. The Minneapolis arena opened in 1990, a 36-year-old arena is considered antiquated in this day and age. The venue received a $150 million renovation in 2017, $74 million from Minneapolis taxpayers and then owner Glen Taylor paying most of the remaining cost. In April, it was reported that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was pushing the Minneapolis City Center complex as a potential site for a new Timberwolves/Lynx arena. Nothing developed and now Lore is leaving, pending NBA owners approval, and Stad is not yet in an official position to demand an arena and it is unclear how much money Stad might want to throw into an arena. Stad apparently wants to keep the Timberwolves and Lynx businesses in Minneapolis. The formula is simple, the owner throws in money and the government figures out how to fund the rest of the project. The state of Minnesota is also dealing with the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild’s ownership request for money to renovate its St. Paul arena.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.
https://evanweiner1.substack.com
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
