Phoenix Suns minority owner Justin Ishbia, the older brother of Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia, is interested in buying the Minnesota Twins, according to several reports.
Phoenix Suns minority owner Justin Ishbia is the founder and managing partner of Shore Capital Partners
Justin Ishbia, 47, is the founder and managing partner of Shore Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. He also has a 22% stake in United Wholesale Mortgage, for which Mat Ishbia serves as CEO and chairman, per Forbes.
Mat purchased the Suns in December 2022. Three days after the NBA approved his ownership in February 2023, the Suns acquired All-Star forward Kevin Durant in a blockbuster trade with the Brooklyn Nets.
According to Forbes, Justin has an estimated net worth of $5.4 billion. He would lead the Twins investor group while remaining part of the Suns’ majority ownership group and serving as the team’s alternate governor.
Mat Ishbia is controlling owner of the Suns, but @DanHayesMLB reports Justin Ishbia would be controlling owner of the Twins if they buy the team.
That's noteworthy, because @_Brian_Hamilton wrote recently about Justin Ishbia's lifelong love of baseball: https://t.co/Z4j7pXhvs2 pic.twitter.com/MQEeKAFIe1
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 13, 2024
Since his brother purchased the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion, Justin has held the title of alternate governor for the Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury, in addition to minority owner of Major League Soccer’s Nashville Soccer Club.
Justin’s interest in baseball remains unknown. Perhaps he loves “America’s pastime” because it’s a team sport.
“The beauty of baseball is that it’s not about a star or two,” Ishbia told The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton in September. “It’s truly a team sport, and it’s a team sport over a long period of time. It’s a grind, it’s a discipline, [and] it’s life. Life is the discipline of doing the same thing over and over again consistently. And that’s what the long summer of baseball is all about.”
In October, the Pohlad family, which has owned the Twins for 40 years, announced its decision to explore selling the team. A sale would end one of the longest-tenured ownerships in Major League Baseball.
Minnesota Twins are worth an estimated $1.58 billion
Earlier this year, Forbes and Sportico estimated the Twins to be worth $1.46 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively. The Baltimore Orioles were the most recent Major League Baseball team to sell, and they fetched $1.725 billion in March.
Sources close to the parties involved said the Twins’ sale process will take about six months. This means a new ownership group is unlikely to be in place before Opening Day in 2025.
According to Forbes, the average Major League Baseball team is now worth $2.4 billion, 4% more than a year ago. The most valuable baseball teams are the New York Yankees ($7.55 billion), Los Angeles Dodgers ($5.45 billion), and Boston Red Sox ($4.5 billion).
Although the Twins won an American League Central title in 2023 and their first playoff victory since 2002, the team failed to draw two million fans in 2024. They haven’t been able to reach that mark since 2019.
Minnesota ranked 23rd out of 30 MLB teams in home attendance last season. The Twins finished 82-80 last season, missing the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
Additionally, team officials announced last offseason that the club would cut payroll by $30 million less than one month after the Twins won their first playoff game since 2004 and first playoff series since 2002.
A reduction in payroll destroyed any chance the club may have had in re-signing free-agent pitcher Sonny Gray, who had finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2023.
This chain reaction of negative events contributed to the Pohlad family’s decision to sell the Twins.
