MINNEAPOLIS — Marc Lore is selling his controlling interest in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx to limited partner and Dragoneer Investment Group founder and managing partner Marc Stadt for $4.5 billion, team sources said Athletic, facilitating the NBA’s second sudden ownership change in just over a week.
Lore will remain part of the ownership group in a limited role, but he is stepping down from his role as governor to focus on taking Wonder, his food delivery and takeout business, public, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been finalized..
Alex Rodriguez, who was co-chairman at Lore, will remain in his role with the Timberwolves and Lynx. He is now paired with Stada at the helm of ownership while Lore takes a step back. The plan is for Rodriguez to serve as a more public-facing member of the ownership group, those sources said, with his experience as both a star athlete and television baseball analyst giving him comfort in the public eye. He is also expected to spend the most time on the court in Minnesota, where he has a home.
Lore and Rodriguez joined the franchise as limited partners in 2021, though Rodriguez has been more visible than the pair in Minnesota over the past year as Lore has devoted more of his time to Wonder.
Lore, Rodriguez and Stad emphasized continuity in a joint statement announcing the transition.
“We have been working together for years with the common goal of building the Timberwolves and Lynx into the best organization in basketball on and off the floor. Our priority is and always will be a championship,” they said. “Our new agreement, pending league approval, is an evolution of the partnership we’ve built together and a reinforcement of our commitment to our team and our culture. We will continue to work closely with Matt Caldwell, Tim Connelly, Chris Finch and Cheryl Reeve and want to thank the fans and the entire Minnesota community for your continued support.”
They added: “While we are proud of the great work we have done, there is much more to do and we are just getting started.”
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Stad founded Dragoneer, which manages over $35 billion in capital, according to Forbes, in 2012. Stad was a limited partner in the group led by Lore and Rodriguez, working behind the scenes as they charted the direction for the organization.
Stad and his wife Elisa will now head the ownership table. Elisa will be appointed governor for the Timberwolves to keep Marc Stad fully engaged at Dragoneer. Elisa spent two decades working globally as a consumer branding executive before the couple co-founded the University of California-San Francisco’s Stadt Center for Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine.
Rodriguez will maintain her position as the governor of the Lynx, who are in first place in the WNBA standings as the playoffs approach with the play of rookie Olivia Miles and veteran Napheese Collier.
Unlike the big changes that rocked the Los Angeles Lakers when Mark Walter made a stunning sale to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger last weekThe Timberwolves transaction represents a reorganization of the team structure. Lore moves from the largest single investor to a limited partner, with less money tied up and more time for Wonder. Stad moves from 3 to 1. Rodriguez holds on as the second largest shareholder.
The group’s stated plans to build a new arena in the Twin Cities and keep the Timberwolves in Minnesota long-term are unchanged, team sources said.
Still, this still represents a monumental shift just over a year after Lore and Rodriguez took full control of the Wolves and Lynx following a littleis a battle with previous owner Glen Taylor.
Lore has been a large, charismatic presence since joining the team. In his first season, he sat courtside and took off his shoes as the Timberwolves completed the victory, his version of Red Auerbach’s victory cigar. He was in the war room on draft night, conferring with president of basketball operations Tim Connelly on potential moves, and vowed from the start to keep the Wolves and Lynx in Minnesota.
“We’re not moving the team, ever,” Lore said after he and Rodriguez took full control last year. “We will never move the team.”
Lore and Rodriguez bought a minority stake in the teams from Taylor in 2021 and laid out a three-step plan to gradually take majority control through a series of payments. Taylor tried to opt out of the deal in 2024, saying Lore and Rodriguez didn’t meet the parameters of the deal.
It triggered a a war of words between the two parties and initiated a seasonal arbitration dispute. Lore and Rodriguez won and were approved by the NBA Board of Governors in the summer of 2025.
“We’re going to use every ounce of effort to enforce the contract that Glenn broke,” Lore said of his commitment to winning in 2024. “That means time, capital, whatever it takes.”
This makes his transition from the leading chair even more surprising.
From the start, Lore was dogged by whispers around the league that he didn’t have the money to be the lead governor of an NBA team, fueled in part by Taylor’s public claims that Lore couldn’t even come up with the cash needed to make the deal. Lore vehemently denied the allegations at every turn, and could point to the NBA’s approval of his group’s acquisition of the Timberwolves and Lynx after a thorough review of his finances as a rebuttal to that characterization.
In June, he also approved a trade for former All-Star point guard LaMelo Ball, putting the Timberwolves over the top and paying the luxury tax.
“I have hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid capital sitting in the bank ready to invest if needed,” Lore said in 2024.
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Lore entered the organization preaching the mantra “VCP” — vision, capital, people. He promised to reinvent the way sports teams are managed and talked about creating a “long-term, sustainable culture of winning on and off the field”. A little over a year after finally wresting full control from Taylor, Lore is now passing the baton to Stadt and Rodriguez.
Two of Lore’s biggest accomplishments during his run were poaching Connelly from the Denver Nuggets and helping rebuild the bridge between the Timberwolves and estranged icon Kevin Garnett, paving the way for Garnett’s No. 21 to be retired next season.
Lore retains his courtside seats at the Target Center alongside Rodriguez and will continue to be available for some of the larger projects, including helping develop plans for the new downtown arena.
When he bought the teams, he called it a dream come true and said he plans to own them for “next 30 years.” But the self-described serial entrepreneur was so immersed in trying to turn Wonder into a public company that he felt he no longer had time to fulfill his day-to-day duties as Wolves governor, team sources said. They will also get an incredible return on their investment. Lore and Rodriguez bought the franchise for $1.5 billion.
Stad has maintained an under-the-radar but important presence as a limited partner. He consulted with team personnel, including during the recruitment of LeBron James this summer, team sources said The Athletic on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. He kept a low profile but built a strong friendship with Lore and Rodriguez. He will now take on a more prominent leadership role in the team.
The transition is smooth given that all three are already involved in the management of the franchise. The Stad is fully aware of the plans for the formation of the roster and the long-term vision of the team. That means that, about six weeks before training camp opens, it doesn’t look like there will be any major changes of the kind that can often come when ownership changes.
The Herd has grown especially close with Rodriguez, and now the two will serve as primary partners to lead Minnesota basketball forward.
One of the great joys I’ve had in my career is spending the last few years helping build the Timberwolves and Lynx with my friend and partner Marc Lore. I am very excited to announce that this amazing journey is reaching a new level today. Marc and Elisa Stad, who were our…
— Alex Rodriguez (@AROD) August 21, 2026
Lore turned down opportunities to sell his controlling interest for the more than $4.5 billion that Stadt is buying him for, a league source familiar with the market said. The Athletic on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. But Lore has chosen continuity over price to ensure that all the work the group has done over the past year can continue without interruption.
The Stad takes over at a critical time for both franchises. The Timberwolves advanced to back-to-back Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025 before taking a step back last season with a second-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Anthony Edwards recently turned 25 and is nearing his prime, and Connelly made another echo in June to acquire Ball in an effort to push the Wolves back into contender status.
With Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert and coach Chris Finch also returning, the Wolves will enter the upcoming season with high expectations.
The Lynx, meanwhile, will enter the playoffs as one of the favorites to win the WNBA championship. The title would be the fifth for head coach and president Cheryl Reeve.
