Relocating a professional sports franchise can be traumatic for fans. One only has to look at the Baltimore Colts’ midnight move to Indianapolis in 1984, or the fondness with which MLB fans continue to regard the former Montreal Expos, to see the long-standing reverberations of a sports franchise’s departure from one community to another.

WNBA history has been marked by franchise upheavals, but it has been nearly eight years since one of the league’s franchise changed cities. That run appears poised to end in 2026, when the Connecticut Sun are set to move to Boston after more than two decades under the stewardship of the Mohegan Tribe.

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Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is leading a group that will purchase the Sun for a league-record $325 million and relocate it to Boston in time for the 2027 WNBA season. In addition, the team will receive a $100 million practice facility, after many years of training inside the Mohegan Tribe’s Community Center in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Of course, the 100-mile move east from Uncasville is subject to approval from the WNBA Board of Governors, and Pagliuca had yet to issue a statement on the pending purchase…until Sunday night, when he addressed the matter on behalf of PagsGroup.

“No transaction has been agreed to yet,” Pagliuca said. “Over the past two decades, the Mohegan Tribe has invested substantial time and resources into the Sun and has built a strong New England presence for the WNBA. Our objective, should we acquire the team, is to honor that legacy, further invest in the team, grow its devoted fan base in the region, and build a championship team that players and fans continue to be proud of.

“As passionate basketball fans and strong believers in women’s professional sports, we remain excited by this opportunity and would be honored to serve as the next stewards of this franchise, if the transaction can be approved,” Pagliuca continued. “We look forward to continuing to work with the WNBA and NBA as the process unfolds.”

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