Arbitration ruling in Wolves ownership dispute 'could still take a few months'

Don't expect any news soon on the Timberwolves ownership front.

Sep 27, 2021; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Current owner Glen Taylor and limited partners and alt-governors for the Minnesota Timberwolves Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lore hold up jerseys after answering questions at a press conference at media day. | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Arbitration hearings in the dispute over ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves (and Lynx) concluded last week, but it "could still take a few months" before the three-person panel makes a ruling, according to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski.

"So don’t expect anything anytime soon," he said.

It sounds like some patience will be required as fans await a resolution to this dispute between current majority owner Glen Taylor and limited partners/prospective owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez.

Previously, reporting from ESPN's Shams Charania indicated that this situation might be resolved within a month of the arbitration process beginning on November 4. Now that no longer seems to be the case.

"I don't know the exact reason, but I do know that anything in the legal world typically moves at a snail's pace," Krawczynski wrote in a Twitter reply.

"I thought (it would be resolved within 30 days) as well, but apparently that is not the case," he said in another reply. "This is going to drag out for a while."

Rodriguez and Lore, along with new partner Michael Bloomberg, apparently have $940 million ready to be wired to Taylor to complete their purchase of the franchise at the originally agreed-upon cost of $1.55 billion.

Taylor backed out of the deal earlier this year in a move that stunned Rodriguez and Lore. The franchise valuation has increased in the last few years since the process of the purchase and ownership transfer was initially set into motion in 2021.

It'll all depend on the results of the arbitration hearings, which may have been centered around one specific clause, as our Joe Nelson wrote last month:

"The outcome of the ownership battle could come down to the interpretation of one clause in the purchase agreement. Lore and Rodriguez contend an automatic 90-day extension to complete the purchase should have been triggered when they submitted paperwork to the NBA and were waiting on approval earlier this year. Taylor argues that Rodriguez and Lore could have been granted a “limited extension” under specific circumstances, but that those circumstances did not occur."

It's going to take a while, but at some point this winter, we should know the end result.