Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore have put $942 million into escrow as they prepare for binding arbitration that will determine whether they can finish their purchase of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, according to multiple people familiar with the move.
Rodriguez and Lore put the money in an escrow account held by JPMorgan late last week, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. The money is the totality of what’s owed to current owner Glen Taylor (and other LPs) in the final two parts of their planned acquisition of the teams. The $1.5 billion deal, which was reached in 2021, is headed to arbitration on the week of Nov. 4 as the two sides fight over whether the contract terms were breached earlier this year.
The move is designed to eliminate any confusion over whether the buyers have the cash to fully complete their deal, a question that has loomed over the entire process. The third payment, which is the one that triggered Taylor’s about-face, would give them a control stake in both teams; the fourth would buy out Taylor entirely.
The buyers have also set aside $300 million for working capital should they ultimately acquire the teams, the sources said. Representatives for the buyers and Taylor didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Over the past few months, the two sides have navigated the deposition phase—Taylor subpoenaed the league as part of the fact-finding process—and tried to strengthen their positions in other ways. Sportico reported in June, for example, that billionaire Mike Bloomberg had joined their group to provide financing for the fourth payment.
It’s unclear exactly how much this move will matter during the contractually obligated arbitration next month. Taylor’s public claims against Lore and Rodriguez have been more procedural—he says the pair missed a series of deadlines in the past year that triggered opt-outs in the contract. The buyers, on the other hand, say they fully adhered to the terms.
That said, the status of their funding has been a principal question since the deal was announced. Rodriguez and Lore raised money for much of the past three years to finance their successive purchases. And the most recent payment—the one that would have given the buyers control of the teams—did not close within the initial time frame laid out in the agreement, and is the crux of the argument between the buyers and seller. Financing from Carlyle fell through in the final weeks, and was replaced by funds from Dyal and Bloomberg, according to Sportico‘s prior reporting.
The original purchase agreement, signed in 2021, allowed Rodriguez and Lore to buy the teams over four years in four stages—20%, 20%, 40%, then 20%. It started at a combined $1.5 billion valuation, with that number rising about 4% each year. The Timberwolves are now worth $2.94 billion, and the Lynx are now worth $85 million, according to Sportico, a significantly higher number than the deal itself.
The Lore/Rodriguez group has already purchased about 40% of the teams in the deal’s first two payments. The 40% stake in dispute includes general partnership interests and all of the non-Taylor LP interests, according to a lawsuit filed after the agreement by the largest outside shareholder in the teams. The final payment, originally supposed to be the final 20%, is all equity from Taylor.
(This story has been updated in the seventh paragraph to clarify the dispute around the third payment from Rodriguez and Lore.)