Arbitration hearing in Timberwolves' ownership dispute set for November

Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore's dispute with Glen Taylor will be resolved this year.

Apr 12, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves co-minority owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore celebrate a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers after a play-in game at Target Center. | Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

The dispute for majority ownership of the Timberwolves and Lynx will be resolved later this year, but not before the start of the 2024-25 NBA season. An arbitration hearing, which will settle things between principal owner Glen Taylor and minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, has been set for November, according to the Star Tribune.

The hearing is expected to last a week, with a decision coming from a three-member arbitration panel within 30 days after that.

Lore and Rodriguez, who own 36 percent of the franchises, were set to complete a $1.5 billion payment with their third and final installment in March, which would've given them controlling ownership. But on March 28, Taylor released a stunning statement that said Lore and Rodriguez had missed the deadline and that the Wolves and Lynx were no longer for sale. That broke up a three-year ownership transition process that had seemed smooth and amicable up to that point.

The two business partners disagreed vehemently with Taylor's view that they had missed a deadline. They said they had the funding ready to go and were waiting on approval from the NBA. The dispute went to a mediation hearing on May 1, which failed to resolve it. That meant arbitration would be the next step. By the end of this year, we'll have a resolution to this situation.