{"id":93257,"date":"2025-08-24T09:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T09:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93257\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T09:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T09:45:07","slug":"commissioners-handling-of-sun-sale-is-embarrassing-for-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93257\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioner\u2019s handling of Sun sale is embarrassing for WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things haven\u2019t been this rigged for Houston to win something since the 2017 World Series. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert isn\u2019t even hiding the fact that she\u2019s the one banging the trash can lid.<\/a> <\/p>\n

An ESPN report that came out on Tuesday confirmed what was becoming increasingly apparent: The WNBA\u2019s petty leadership doesn\u2019t want the Connecticut Sun to move to Boston<\/a> and they don\u2019t mind screwing the Mohegan Tribe, which has run the team at a loss, the fans of New England and a prospective owner, who made a record bid.<\/p>\n

It all makes the league look small-time. This should be beneath the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Boston didn\u2019t participate in the WNBA\u2019s recent expansion process, a process that it would have had exactly zero chance of winning, because there is already a team 90 miles away in Uncasville, Connecticut. Going through the motions would have been a waste of time, money and resources. Especially when it seemed pretty obvious that the Sun would likely be on the move eventually.<\/p>\n

Instead, Steve Pagliuca, a well-respected and well-liked former Celtics minority owner, came to an agreement on a $325 million bid to buy and move the team, just up the road to Boston, where he pledged to build a $100 million practice facility.<\/p>\n

That should have been cause for celebration. Instead, the league began immediately laying the groundwork to block the deal. WNBA leadership is holding Boston\u2019s lack of a bid during the league\u2019s recent expansion process against it. It\u2019s an argument that doesn\u2019t make sense, but it\u2019s the best they have to keep their rigged train on the track to Houston.<\/p>\n

Most leagues, credible ones anyway, encourage their teams to find local buyers. The WNBA has not only thrown up roadblocks for Boston, but Hartford, too.<\/p>\n

It would be more understandable if Houston were a terrific up-and-coming market that the league was desperate to get into, but didn\u2019t have expansion coming anytime soon. Like Vegas had been in the MLB or the NFL.<\/p>\n

But Houston has been a WNBA embarrassment before. Their failure, like everything else, was bigger in Texas. Houston couldn\u2019t\/wouldn\u2019t support the Comets after they\u2019d won four WNBA championships.<\/p>\n

Failing in 2008 isn\u2019t the same as failing today would be, but the Comets went belly-up with Hall of Famers, players who were household names before WNBA players were household names. Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoops, Tina Thompson, Dawn Staley and Rebecca Lobo were all part of the dominant Comets, who couldn\u2019t stay afloat and couldn\u2019t find a buyer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the WNBA. Houston is a city that lost its NFL team. In football-mad Texas, the Oilers pulled up roots and went to Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The WNBA didn\u2019t even like Houston that much. The league is in a huge expansion period. Beginning with Golden State this year, the league is adding six teams, including three other prior failures, through 2030. If Houston were such a great market, the league could have added it already.<\/p>\n

Houston is far from a sure thing. But they participated in the expansion process.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, Engelbert\u2019s appearance in Boston when Connecticut hosted Indiana at TD Garden looks incredibly disingenuous. <\/a>There was ample discussion among media, coaches and even the teams\u2019 players about the possibility of the Sun relocating to Boston.<\/p>\n

She ate up all of Governor Maura Healey\u2019s fawning proclamations and didn\u2019t hide from the rumors of Donnie Wahlberg\u2019s interest in buying the team. All the while, the fix was in for Houston. Engelbert probably has a big hat picked out already for the announcement.<\/p>\n

The W is choosing to stick it to New England and all of the Sun fans. If the Sun move to Boston, a decent percentage of the team\u2019s supporters are likely to stay aboard. Many already live within a commuter rail ride of TD Garden anyway. Even the Connecticut residents aren\u2019t so far away that they\u2019d never make the trip.<\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s success over the past 30 years created women\u2019s basketball fans in New England long before much of the rest of the country caught on. And the many former Husky players, who are thriving in the league, make it likely that fans in that state would retain their allegiance to the Sun in Boston.<\/p>\n

But stripping the team out of the region leaves them with nobody to root for. There\u2019s no guarantee that any of those jilted fans would come back to the WNBA in eight years, if Boston gets awarded a team then. <\/p>\n

Pagliuca might no longer be interested by then either. The 70-year-old could spend his money elsewhere rather than sit on his hands for eight more years. Right now, he has an ally in the governor\u2019s office, which is critical when relocating to Boston. Healey might not be there by the time expansion rolls around again.<\/p>\n

The quality of the play in women\u2019s professional basketball has taken huge steps forward. The players have begun to get the respect they\u2019ve worked so hard for so long to earn.<\/p>\n

But a big-time product can\u2019t succeed with small-time leadership. If the WNBA can\u2019t handle expansion and relocation like a first-class league, how are they going to navigate the labor battle that looms just down the road?<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things haven\u2019t been this rigged for Houston to win something since the 2017 World Series. WNBA Commissioner Cathy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-93257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93257","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=93257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}