Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti told reporters on Sunday that the team would remain in its current home of the Mohegan Sun Arena through at least the 2026 season, amidst reports that Boston Celtics’ minority governor Steve Pagliuca was leading an ownership group that planned to buy the franchise and move it to Boston.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feelings from our fans based on the news that we’ll be here next year,” Rizzotti said. “I know there’s still uncertainty about the future but our loyal fans, they’re excited to be able to watch this team grow and get into Year Two of this retooling of the roster and see where we can go. And if it ends up being our last year here, we’re going to make sure we blow it out.”
The entire situation will hinge on whether the WNBA and its board of governors even approve the sale, of course.
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” the league said in a statement Saturday. “As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and 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. Celtics’ prospective owner Bill Chisholm has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.”
The Sun are currently owned by the Mohegan Tribe, which noted that “any sales agreement with relocation of the team to a different market would need to be approved by the WNBA and would also be subject to non-disclosure terms.”
Boston is the bigger market, and the Sun have already played regular-season games in the city at TD Garden arena, so relocating about two hours away wouldn’t be a terribly jarring change.
But Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reported Saturday that a source said the league would rather save Boston as a potential expansion city in 2033, and a WNBA source told him that if the league forces the Mohegan Tribe to sell to a Connecticut-based owner or ownership group, it would comply.
However, Mohegan reportedly would prefer to sell to the Pagliuca-backed group, which has made a $325 million bid. Pagliuca released the following statement on Sunday:
Additionally, Pagliuca has reportedly committed to a $100 million contribution toward building a new practice facility for the team. The Sun currently do not have a dedicated practice facility.