The steady decline of the Boston Red Sox has been palpable since 2019, to fans in Boston and beyond. The team that has won the most World Series since 2000 and had been a perennial playoff contender through many of those years has been fundamentally changed due to ownership's expanded portfolio across sports as well as other spending changes.
Another massive change since John Henry took over as the Red Sox's principal owner is that he sold part of the team to private equity firms, solely to maximize profit. Private equity has entered peoples' daily lives in a way that it never has before — more and more businesses, homes, and even youth sports organizations, are being bought out by some of the richest entities in the world, driving prices up and making more goods and services unavailable to everyday Americans.
Red Sox fans have grown to detest ownership as private equity mindsets infiltrate team decisions (trading generational stars or letting them walk, refusing to issue long-term contracts for stars, refusing to issue no-trade clauses, etc.). Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Maine, saw an opportunity and took it.
Platner over Memorial Day weekend purchased an advertisement spot on NESN to run an ad condemning private equity firms' infiltration of regular life in the United States. His ad opened with a voiceover of Platner saying "private equity has destroyed our favorite baseball team." It featured Red Sox logo-like text, images of Fenway Park, Monster-green homes and a promise to "reverse the private equity curse," in a callback to 2004.
Red Sox, NESN only make themselves look worse by pulling Graham Platner ad calling out private equity dominance in the U.S.
Yesterday we started running this ad during the Red Sox game.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 23, 2026
Midway through the game the ad was taken down by the station (which is owned by Red Sox ownership).
And then the Sox blew a 4-0 lead. https://t.co/3Ilim6xQ9f
By the middle of the game, NESN pulled the ad. Eighty percent of NESN is owned by Fenway Sports Group, the now-massive sports holding conglomerate that Henry and Red Sox co-owner tom Werner helped found.
NESN confirmed it pulled the ad, citing intellectual property violations. The station did not state which specific elements of Platner's ad created those violations, however. Here's a segment of NESN's statement, via The New York Times (subscription required):
“NESN removes advertisements when credible concerns arise regarding the use of intellectual property. The advertisement in question was removed because the creative included unauthorized use of third-party intellectual property and did not comply with NESN’s advertising standards.”
Unfortunately, it's just like the Red Sox to have Platner's ad pulled. Henry has gone above and beyond to avoid accountability for the slow dismantling of the franchise he first bought. He hasn't answered questions or been interviewed in-person by Boston media since the 2020 Mookie Betts trade and the Red Sox have entirely changed the format of their winter fan festival to ensure Henry doesn't have to answer to New England's justifiably angry fanbase.
NESN's pull of Platner's ad makes Henry and FSG look as guilty as they are of everything of which they've been accused. The Red Sox's transition into a profit-first franchise rather than a winning-first or fan-first one isn't a secret, and everyone who buys a ticket to see a game at Fenway Park or a subscription to NESN 360 (that hardly works) can feel it in the bank account.
Platner's ad didn't contain any false information about the Red Sox's owenership. If Henry is confident in or not ashamed of his decision to sell one of the most storied franchises in sports to pure profit machines, he should own up to it — he only makes himself look worse by trying to hide the exceedingly obvious truth that profit, not city pride or love of baseball, is king on Jersey Street.
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