Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner stands by ad slamming Red Sox over private equity

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Graham Platner, Maine’s presumptive Democratic Senate nominee, began Memorial Day weekend by releasing an ad on the cable station that airs Boston Red Sox games accusing team owners of ruining the storied franchise. He then ended it by criticizing the team’s ownership for pulling the critical message from the air.

It was a move designed to appeal to the team’s devoted fanbase and provoke its wealthy ownership. And within hours of the network’s decision, Platner has been all too eager to capitalize on the removal, using it to push his populist message as he campaigns to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine.

“We ran an ad during last night’s Red Sox game exposing how private equity is making everything in our lives worse, and it got pulled midway through the game by a station owned by Red Sox ownership,” Platner said in a statement on Saturday. “And of course, the Red Sox blew a 4-0 lead to lose the game.”

The ad was pulled by New England Sports Network, which is owned predominantly by Fenway Sports Group, a conglomerate that also owns the Red Sox and Liverpool of the Premier League.

“NESN removes advertisements when credible concerns arise regarding the use of intellectual property,” the network said in a statement. “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.”

NESN did not immediately answer questions about what specifically in the ad violated the station’s rules. The Red Sox also did not respond to a question seeking comment.

Collins’ campaign said in a statement that Platner’s criticism of the Red Sox was an attempt to change the subject from “questions about his judgment and character.” Platner has been dogged during the campaign with questions about a tattoo he eventually had covered up that was associated with Nazi imagery. His old social media posts about subjects including women, police, veterans and rural Americans have also been called into question, and he has acknowledged and apologized for them. He has also said he was unaware about the tattoo’s meaning when he got it after a night of drinking.

Platner’s 15-second ad about the Red Sox includes the oyster farmer promising to “reverse the private equity curse” if elected and stating that he missed Mookie Betts, a nod to the simmering rage that Boston fans have held after FSG traded the homegrown superstar to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. (“Reverse the curse” was a popular slogan among Red Sox fans in the 1990s and 2000s that referred to the team’s long-running failure to win a World Series prior to 2004.)

It also accuses private equity of “buying up our homes, our sports and our lives” while referencing a March 2021 Axios report detailing that RedBird Capital Partners, a private equity firm, would have an 11% stake in FSG.

Around that same time, FSG brought on as an investor Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who has stated that he wants to one day own an NBA team.

FSG went on to purchase the NHL’s five-time Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins in late 2021. In 2025, FSG agreed to sell the Penguins to the Chicago-based Hoffmann Family of Cos. for a reported $1.7 billion price tag. That sale was approved earlier this year.

FSG’s founder and principal owner, John Henry, was an active political donor, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to mostly Democratic candidates, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, campaign filings don’t show any activity from him post 2004.

The Red Sox are currently in last place in their division at 22-30 and have descended into mediocrity in the years since the RedBird Capital agreement. At times, fans have chanted “sell the team” during home games this season in Boston.

The team had a run of success in the years prior to the RedBird Capital deal, winning World Series in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. It has struggled since, advancing to the American League Championship Series only once.

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Hightower reported from Boston and Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.