Phoenix Suns minority owner Justin Ishbia emerges as bid for Minnesota Twins: Source

DALLAS – The ownership group that recently bought the Phoenix Suns – before immediately making a splash by buying Kevin Durant – is now interested in buying the Minnesota Twins.

A source briefed on the situation confirmed that Justin Ishbia and his brother, Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Mat Ishbia, are interested in purchasing the twins from the Pohlad family, who began investigating a sale October after 40 years of ownership. Bloomberg first reported the Ishbias’ interest in the twins.

Justin Ishbia, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $5.4 billion, would lead the Twins investor group and is part of the Suns’ majority ownership group and the team’s alternate governor. His younger brother Mat bought the Suns in December 2022. Three days after the NBA approved his ownership in February 2023, the Suns acquired Durant in a blockbuster trade with the Brooklyn Nets.

Justin Ishbia, 47, is the founder and managing partner of Shore Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, and also has a 22 percent stake in United Wholesale Mortgage, of which his brother Mat serves as CEO and chairman, according to Forbes .

Earlier this year, Forbes and Sportico estimated the twins to be worth $1.46 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively. The most recent Major League Baseball team to be sold is the Baltimore Orioles, which fetched $1.725 billion in March.

Multiple parties briefed on the matter expect the Twins’ sale process to take six months, meaning a new ownership group likely won’t be in place before Opening Day. One of those sources said the Ishbia brothers are very interested in buying the club and have held several meetings with local leaders.

Earlier this week at MLB’s Winter Meetings in Dallas, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said it’s still early in the sale process. Falvey, who is set to become the Twins’ team president in January, described the sale’s status as being in phase one, “which is gathering a ton of information. Our lawyers and financial people who have to keep track of it all, they’ve been working as insane. Then there’s the next stage in the process when potential buyers start looking into this. We’re not at that stage yet.”

While a sale may not be finalized until April, the promise of a new ownership group could provide vital energy to an organization that needs to reconnect with its fan base. Despite coming off an American League Central title in 2023 and their first playoff win since 2002, the Twins failed to draw two million fans in 2024. Minnesota was 23rd out of 30 MLB teams in home games last season.

Fandiscord likely played a significant role in keeping diehards away from Target Field in 2024 after ownership cut payroll by $30 million for the season and the team was blacked out in its own TV market for three months, the result of a contract dispute between Xfinity and the club’s broadcast partner, Diamond Sports/Bally’s.

Although the Twins have not promised additional salary reductions for the 2025 season, the team’s payroll is expected to remain around $130 million. While no further reductions in payroll are a better position than the Twins were in a year ago, the team’s front office still has to contend with a roster full of players that are getting more expensive. Currently, the team’s projected payroll for 2025 is between $136 million and $140 million.

“When a family goes to sell a team, the excitement, the possibility of the new buyer will come in and bring a renewed spirit to the sport,” agent Scott Boras said in early November. “The great thing about franchises, I think, is when you see them change ownership, you see somebody come in who has a very refreshed view of why they bought the team, and I know it’s an investment, but they now understand that ‘I don’t want to go around my town and have my last name changed. I understand that my last name is now a winner or a loser.’ I don’t think any ownership really realizes that until they buy the team, until they’re involved in sports, and then suddenly they understand that regardless of their great business success that allowed them to buy the team, their presence in our country is probably best known for the behavior of the team they just bought.”

From left, Mat and Justin Ishbia watch a Suns game in 2023. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Since his brother bought the Suns for $4 billion, Justin Ishbia has held the title of alternate governor of the Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury, as well as held a minority interest and alternate governorship of the Nashville Sounds, Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Under the family’s leadership, the Suns built a new training facility and campus for team employees. After a dispute with their regional sports broadcasting partner, last season the Suns began airing their games for free on local television.

Justin Ishbia has been heavily involved in running all three teams. He has also donated $10 million to Michigan State University’s athletics program and another $10 million to Vanderbilt University. Ishbia and his wife, Kristen, earned undergraduate degrees at Michigan State, and he is a Vanderbilt Law School alum.

“The beauty of baseball is that it’s not about a star or two,” Ishbia shared Athletics‘s Brian Hamilton in September. “It’s really a team sport, and it’s a team sport over a long period of time. It’s a laugh and it’s a discipline. That’s life. Life is the discipline of doing the same thing over and over consistently. And that’s what the long baseball summer is all about.”

GO DEEPER

Justin Ishbia donates $10 million to Michigan State athletics, where baseball scores big

Despite winning the American League Central three times in five seasons, the Twins have struggled to draw fans to Target Field. A team that has drawn three million fans in a season three times in more than 60 seasons in the Twins Cities, including twice since moving into Target Field in 2010, has not topped two million tickets sold since the 2019 season.

Fans were vocal about their disappointment with the ownership group throughout the 2024 season. Last offseason, team officials announced the club would cut the payroll by $30 million less than a month after the Twins won their first playoff game since 2004 and first playoff series since 2002. The news killed any chance of the team re-signing free-agent pitcher Sonny Gray, who had finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting in 2023. Fans believed the salary cuts killed the club’s momentum as well, and the moniker “Cheap Pohlads” previously given to the ownership group by some in the fan base struck again.

In early May, the team suffered another major blow when cable provider Xfinity and the team’s regional sports network, Bally, and its parent company Diamond Sports, ended negotiations, leading to a three-month blackout that took the team off the air for more than 40 percent of the twin area.

As the Twins collapsed later in the season, going from almost a sure thing to make the playoffs on Aug. 17 to finishing four games out of a wild-card spot, Twins fans began to voice their displeasure with ownership. Whether it was patrons at the ballpark chanting “Sell the team,” or a creative fan sneaking in a “Defund The Pohlads” sign that entered the big-screen video board, Twins loyalists made their feelings known.

On October 10, the Pohlad family surprisingly announced that it was exploring a sale, raising the possibility that the stewards of the franchise since 1984 and for three generations were interested in passing the baton.

(Top photo of Justin Ishbia, left) and Matt Ishbia: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)