Former UConn basketball star and NBA Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle is investing in professional sports in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Castle is among the latest group of investors in the Connecticut Sports Group, the company that\u2019s planning to build a soccer stadium in Bridgeport.<\/p>\n
CTSG is developing CT United FC, the men\u2019s professional club that will play in the MLS NEXT Pro league in 2026, and also a future professional women\u2019s team, slated to join WPSL Pro in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying basketball at UConn showed me the incredible talent and passion for sports here in Connecticut,\u201d said Castle, who now plays for the San Antonio Spurs. \u201cMy family and I are proud to invest in CTSG and help build elite clubs that inspire young athletes, energize fans, and create lasting pride across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
He joins other newly announced investors including Calvin L. Butts Jr., co-founder and general partner of private equity firm East Chop Capital; Johan Bjurstr\u00f6m, a Swedish private equity investor; Michael Salguero, founder and CEO of ButcherBox, a direct-to-consumer meat company; Shiva Sarram, executive director of Blossom Hill Foundation in Connecticut; and Drew Pearson, operating partner at Brighton Park Capital.<\/p>\n
CTSG is led by Andr\u00e9 and Michelle Swanston who founded and developed Tru Optik, a data and identity company for streaming media advertising, which they sold to Transunion for $150 million.<\/p>\n
CTSG has positioned the planned Bridgeport stadium complex as a live-work-play destination that would also include more than 1,000 housing units, create 1,300 permanent jobs, and generate $3.4 billion in statewide economic impact.<\/p>\n
The group is seeking state funding for surrounding infrastructure for the project including roads, sewerage, and amenities like a riverwalk.<\/p>\n
CTSG had lobbied for support during the last legislative session, but lawmakers requested an economic impact statement before committing to the funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UConn basketball star and NBA Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle is investing in professional sports in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,4675,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-340726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-home-page-featured","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}