Report: Lore and Rodriguez Close on Second $290 Million Payment to Purchase Wolves, Lynx

Minority partners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have completed a second payment of $290 million toward purchasing the majority stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, according to Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, confirming an earlier report from KSTP’s Darren Wolfson. After exercising an option to purchase an additional 20% of the two franchises in December and closing on the payment today, the group now owns a combined 40% of them.

The former Walmart executive and 14-time MLB All-Star have now put forward than $500 million collectively toward their ownership pursuit — more than the requires amount up until this point. The Athletic also reported that the full sale of the clubs is on track for March 2024, three months after the December 2023 date that has been previously reported.

Sportico reported in December that Lore and Rodriguez had “spent much of the last six months raising money” to fund the purchase of Minnesota’s professional basketball teams, and that the unique structure of the deal — three call options with escalators with up to 4% — presented an opportunity for the incoming owners to “improve the economics over the course of the payments.” Despite closing the initial first 20% option in 2021 with the club valued at $1.5 billion, Lore and Rodriguez have “discussed significantly higher valuations with their talks with investors” and have included numbers higher than $2 billion, per Sportico.

Since joining the Timberwolves and Lynx nearly two years ago, Lore and Rodriguez have already begun to make their mark on the two clubs, starting with the team presidents.

Last May, they hired a highly coveted executive in Tim Connelly away from the rival Denver Nuggets on a five-year deal lead the Wolves’ revamped Basketball Operations department before swinging for the fences on the Rudy Gobert trade last July. Then, in November, the duo signed Minnesota Lynx Head Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve to a five-year contract extension, which included a promotion to President of Basketball Operations.