Alex Rodriguez and his business partner Marc Lore are trying to come up with more money to finalize their purchase of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, one week before the final payment is due.
Rodriguez, the former Yankees superstar, and Lore, an entrepreneur, lost the financial backing of the Carlyle Group investment firm, which according to current majority Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was going to provide them $300 million.
The duo had been buying the Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in installments, and this next payment — due March 27, according to ESPN — would have secured them majority ownership.
“They had an equity group that was going to come in and put in $300 million, and that equity group has either withdrawn or the NBA has denied them,” Taylor told reporter David Shama. “They have to go out and find new revenue. That I do know. I don’t know if they found it or what they’re going to do. We haven’t seen the schedule of ownership yet.”
NBA spokesman Mike Bass told the Star Tribune that the league “did not deny Carlyle’s proposed investment in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx,” though the paper reported the NBA may be hesitant about allowing “institutional capital into the league.”
Rodriguez and Lore have already been involved in talks to find other financing, according to Sportico, which was told by a representative for the duo that they’re still on schedule to close the deal to purchase the two teams next week.
The two first purchased 20 percent of the teams in 2021, setting up what would ultimately be a $1.5 billion deal, and acquired an additional 20 percent last March.
This next payment would give them another 40 percent for a total of 80 percent, making them the majority owners.
Rodriguez, 48, has frequently attended Timberwolves games and last month went viral when, while sitting next to girlfriend Jaclyn Cordeiro, sported a darker-than-usual tan.
“All right everybody, I know that I’m dark, but I am Dominican, and I went on vacation and I fell asleep in the sun. So everybody calm down,” Rodriguez explained on Instagram.
Taylor, a former Minnesota state senator, purchased the Timberwolves in 1994.
