Mortgage-Lending Billionaire Mat Ishbia to Buy Phoenix Suns and Mercury
The teams’ current owner, Robert Sarver, put them on the market earlier this year after being suspended by the NBA for violating workplace standards
A group led by mortgage-lending billionaire Mat Ishbia has agreed to buy a majority stake in the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Mercury, in a deal that values the teams at $4 billion amid a rapidly rising market in sports team valuations.
Ishbia would buy control of the teams from Robert Sarver, who put the teams on the market after being suspended by the NBA for violating workplace standards. The deal will be subject to the approval of the league’s board of governors in a 75% majority vote.
“Mat is the right leader to build on franchise legacies of winning and community support and shepherd the Suns and Mercury into the next era,” said Sarver in a statement.
The agreement, first reported by ESPN, would mark the latest big jump in the valuations of sports franchises, which have been rising steeply recently. A group led by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly earlier this year agreed to acquire Chelsea, in the English Premier League, for over $3 billion. In June, a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton agreed to buy the National Football League’s Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion.
Ishbia played basketball as a walk-on at Michigan State University and won a championship with the Spartans at the 2000 NCAA tournament. His winning bid for the teams comes less than two weeks after a report that venture capitalists Jack Selby, the managing director of investment firm Thiel Capital, and Jason Pressman, the managing director of Shasta Ventures, had submitted a $3 billion bid.
“Both teams have an incredibly dynamic fan base and I have loved experiencing the energy of the Valley over the last few months,” Ishbia said. “Basketball is at the core of my life, from my high school days as a player to the honor of playing for Coach Izzo and winning a national title at Michigan State University.”
The fate of the Suns and Mercury has been a subject of speculation since September, when Sarver announced that he would begin searching for buyers for the teams. Earlier that month, the NBA had suspended Sarver for one year, and fined him $10 million, for having “violated common workplace standards.” An independent investigation found that Sarver had used a racial slur on at least five occasions “when recounting the statements of others,” had treated female employees unequally and had engaged in “inappropriate physical conduct toward male employees.”
On the court, the Suns and Mercury have enjoyed recent success. In 2021, both teams reached the Finals, and the Mercury won the 2014 WNBA title. Their rosters include some of the sport’s A-list stars: All-Star NBA guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul, future WNBA Hall-of-Famer Diana Taurasi. Last week, Brittney Griner announced her intention to return to action for the Mercury this upcoming season, following her detention in Russia.
United Wholesale Mortgage is a nonbank mortgage company founded by Ishbia’s father, which has grown rapidly in recent years by issuing mortgages through an army of brokers. The company, where Ishbia became CEO in 2013, went public in early 2021 through a special-purpose-acquisition company, a deal that valued the company at $16 billion. Shares have fallen by roughly two thirds since then.
Ishbia will be joined by his brother Justin, a founding partner of the private-equity firm Shore Capital who will serve as the teams’ alternate governor.
In the summer of 2021, Ishbia required that United Wholesale Mortgage’s employees return to their desks five days a week, a move that predated the national push to return to in-office work. About 500 employees quit as a result of the policy, Ishbia said last year.
Ishbia is no stranger to spending his mortgage fortune in the sports world. In February 2021, he donated $32 million to the Michigan State athletic department. In so doing, he engaged in a public feud with fellow alumnus and mortgage magnate Dan Gilbert, the founder of Rocket Cos., whose own contributions resulted in the men’s basketball team being labeled as “MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage.” That rivalry may soon enter new territory; Gilbert owns the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, who won the 2016 NBA title.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, a five-time NBA champion point guard in the 1980s with the Los Angeles Lakers, wrote on Twitter that he had spoken with Ishbia. “I had a great call with fellow Spartan Mat Ishbia congratulating him on his purchase of the Phoenix Suns. He’s going to do great things not only for the Suns organization, but for the entire league,” Mr. Johnson wrote. “All of the other 29 NBA teams better watch out because Mat’s a winner!”