Phoenix Suns co-owner Justin Ishbia is considering buying the Minnesota Twins

Phoenix Suns co-owner Justin Ishbia, the billionaire founder and managing partner of Shore Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago, is considering adding Minnesota’s oldest major league sports team to his portfolio, according to a report Friday from Bloomberg News.

Ishbia, 47, is studying the Twins and Twin Cities community, the report said, in hopes of expanding his sports holdings, which already include — along with his brother, Mat — the Suns, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and, as a minority partner, MLS’s Nashville Soccer Club. According to Bloomberg, Justin Ishbia has publicly acknowledged that one of his goals is to own a major league baseball team.

The Ishbia brothers, who are worth an estimated $15 billion combined, according to Forbes, paid a record $4 billion to buy the Suns and Mercury in 2023, according to former Suns owner Robert Sarver. That’s 10 times the estimated $400 million dollars Sarver paid for the basketball teams in 2004.

And the family of Carl Pohlad, a banker who bought the twins in 1984 for about $44 million, expects an even bigger return: According to Forbes magazine, the twins are valued at about $1.5 billion, or 34 times what Pohlad paid over four decades. since.

The premium paid for the Suns has not deterred Ishbias from investing in the team’s roster. The Suns have a payroll of $216 million, the most in the NBA, as measured by salary tracking website Spotrac.com. Three Suns players — Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal — will make at least $49 million this year, each among the 15 highest salaries in the league.

The Twins, on the other hand, ranked 19th in MLB last season with a payroll of about $130 million, or $25 million less than the previous season. They have just one player, Carlos Correa, 11th at $33 million, among baseball’s top 40 salaries and are expected to keep the payroll at the same level in 2025.

The Pohlads — the three sons and eight grandchildren of Carl Pohlad, who died in 2009 — announced in October that the team was for sale, a surprise move after Joe Pohlad, the team’s executive chairman, said in January that the family had no plans to sell . Only the Yankees, owned by the Steinbrenner family, and the White Sox, owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, have had the same ownership longer than the Twins.