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What we know about Steve Pagliuca’s bid to buy the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun
One source told the Boston Globe the league would prefer to award Boston an expansion team, likely in 2033.
Is Steve Pagliuca going to purchase the Connecticut Sun and move the team to Boston? Here’s what we know.
Let’s back up. What is the ownership structure of the Connecticut Sun?
The Sun are in a unique position. The franchise was purchased for about $10 million by the Mohegan Indian Tribe in Connecticut in 2003. The Tribe stepped in when the Orlando Miracle, facing financial difficulties, were set to fold, and moved the team to Connecticut.
The Nutmeg State seemed like a natural fit. At that time, UConn women’s basketball had won three national titles. The Huskies three-peated in 2002-04 and are the most successful women’s college basketball program in history.
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Why is the team for sale?
In May, ESPN reported that the Tribe hired investment bank Allen & Co. to explore “all options to strategically invest in the team.”
The Sun play at Mohegan Sun Arena, located inside Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville. The venue can seat a little less than 9,000 for WNBA games, putting the Sun in the bottom half of capacity for the league.
The Sun also do not have adequate training facilities. During the 2024 playoffs, they had to share their practice court with a child’s birthday party in a moment that went viral, underscoring the inconsistency in support for WNBA teams.
The defending champion New York Liberty announced in March plans to build an $80 million practice facility in Brooklyn. The expansion Golden State Valkyries launched this season with a 31,800-square-foot facility in nearby Oakland, Calif.
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As the WNBA continues its rapid growth — it will add five teams by 2030, with some paying a reported $250 million in expansion fees — the pressure is on owners to better support players with facilities and resources.
The Mohegan Tribe has billions of dollars of debt, according to CT Insider, from a casino project in South Korea. In its 2024 annual report, the tribe said the amount of debt could threaten its solvency. The tribe refinanced approximately $1 billion in debt this spring.
The required investment in WNBA teams in this moment could put the tribe in an even more precarious financial situation.
So, who’s buying the Connecticut Sun?
We don’t know yet.
The Globe broke news that Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca, who missed out on a bid to buy the Celtics, offered $325 million to the tribe to purchase the team, with plans to move it to Boston. If his bid is accepted, he also intends to build a $100 million practice facility in Boston.
That amount would be a record for a sale of a women’s sports franchise, and give the tribe some desperately needed cash. Front Office Sports reports the bid was agreed to by the tribe in early July.
But it seems as if the WNBA is trying to intervene in the process, per FOS.
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The tribe presented the bid to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, but it never reached the league’s Board of Governors, which must vote to authorize a sale.
There was an exclusivity period, according to FOS, which expired after a month.
Once it expired, a window opened for Marc Lasry, a former Milwaukee Bucks owner, to step in and make his own competitive bid.
Lasry is a Connecticut native and has eyes on keeping the Sun in the state by moving the team to Hartford, where it would play at the PeoplesBank Arena (capacity 15,684 for basketball). The UConn women’s and men’s basketball teams often move games there from Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs (capacity 10,167) to accommodate larger crowds.
Lasry’s group’s bid is reported to be upward of $300 million, per the Hartford Courant, and is “considered to be in active competition” with Pagliuca’s, according to FOS. Lasry also would build a training facility if his bid goes through.
Pagliuca’s group issued a statement on Sunday, saying the decision was in the WNBA’s hands. A source in the tribe told the Globe its choice was to sell to the Boston-based group.
Why would the WNBA intervene in a sale?
Teams cannot make the decision to relocate. After the Globe broke the news of Pagliuca’s bid, the WNBA issued a statement saying “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams.”
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The league announced in June it would expand by three teams: Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. Cleveland and Detroit previously had WNBA franchises that folded (Cleveland) or moved (Detroit, to Tulsa, then Dallas) in the 2000s.
As part of the expansion process, nine other cities submitted bids. The WNBA said Saturday they all “remain under active consideration.
“No groups from Boston applied for a team at that time and those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston.”
One source told the Globe the league would prefer to award Boston an expansion team, likely in 2033.
In addition, Engelbert has publicly forecasted what may be next for the WNBA.
“Houston … That’s the one we have our eye on,” she said a day after announcing the expansion news.
Tilman Fertitta, who purchased the Rockets in 2017, did apply for an expansion franchise and would like to revive a women’s basketball team in the same city the Comets took over in the 1990s and 2000s, winning the WNBA title four straight years from 1997-2000.
What does the team leadership and roster think?
Jen Rizzotti, the president of the Sun, is from Connecticut and starred for the Huskies at the start of Geno Auriemma’s dynasty.
In comments to the Globe on Monday, she diplomatically weighed the pros and cons of a sale and move.
“I’m a Connecticut girl, so I’ve always been super appreciative of the state and the passionate and knowledgeable supporters of women’s basketball,” said Rizzotti.
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“[But] if there was an opportunity for the team to go somewhere where the players would find exciting, and think they have marketing and brand opportunities, and that these young players in the league want the excitement of a major market and a big city — as a professional, if there was an opportunity to be able to provide that to my players, that would be something that I would prefer.
“So I kind of get torn, right?”
She continued: “It’s important that the league continues to grow and have the success that it’s had. I can’t predict if that should be in Connecticut or Boston, or somewhere else, but I just know that my preference, professionally, is that you give them the best chance to be successful on the court.”
Her players made clear their preference during a July WNBA game between the Sun and the Indiana Fever at TD Garden — the second straight year the Sun sold out in Boston.
“Listen, if it was up to me, we might relocate here,” rookie Saniya Rivers said. “I love Connecticut. It’s fine. But I think the marketing here itself is just going to be better for a women’s basketball program.”
Even the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham weighed in after Indiana’s win.
“I thought it was a lot of fun,” she said. “There’s so much history in this building. I’ve gotten some heat for saying stuff about cities. But I like Boston, man. I really like Boston. Y’all need to get a team here.”
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