The plot is thickening in the saga of the Connecticut Sun’s potential future. With a record-breaking figure in the balance, news reports suggest the Sun’s ownership group is looking at their options to recover a sale of the team.
Sun owners, Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, who relocated the franchise from Orlando in 2003, intend to present multiple proposals to the WNBA as a means of “seeking clarity on the league’s desired path forward for the organization,” a source told ESPN.
The confusion follows the league’s apparent refusal to support a bid to move the team to Boston led by former Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca. His PagsGroup bid $325 million, plus a $100 million commitment to build a new team practice facility in Boston.
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” the league said in a statement following the news of Pagliuca’s bid.
The Mohegan Sun Arena located in Montville, Conn. first opened in Oct. of 2001. Photo Credit: @connecticutsun on Instagram
They also suggested that only cities previously involved in its expansion process could receive a new team. “Nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and… currently have priority over Boston,” their statement conveyed.
Another source says the Mohegan Tribe accepted the PagsGroup deal — but WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert reportedly never brought it to the league’s board of governors. This allowed a period of exclusivity expire, Front Office Sports reports. This also opened up the possibility for different offers, like a match from former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, who is looking to keep the Sun here – with crucial support from the State of Connecticut.
ESPN reports that the tribe will likely present the options of a full franchise sale to either Pagliuca’s or Lasry’s group to the league, in addition to selling minority stakes in the team. Their source also said that the league themselves offered to purchase the team for just $250 million – equivalent to the newest expansion fee, before Pagliuca’s offer was made public.
The other option, ESPN’s source said, would be for the league to purchase the Sun, but they’d have to exceed the going rate of $325 million.
“The tribe is frustrated and feels the league is presenting a one-path option: relocation of the team to a market of its choosing at a value of its choosing,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Alexa Philippou wrote in their report.
After the Mohegan Tribe hired investment bank Allen and Company in May, to facilitate “exploring all options to strategically invest in the team,” the league reportedly asked them to allow the Cleveland Cavaliers ownership group a first chance to buy the team – but at a price lower than the $250 million figure. It’s then, ESPN said, the league “became antagonistic toward the sale,” when the tribe declined Cleveland’s bid and sought other offers.
Their sources said that the WNBA sent two letters stating that the tribe “does not have the right…to change the playing site of the Team’s home games from Mohegan Sun Arena or to conduct any Team operations outside of the Team Member’s Territory (which is defined as the 75-mile area surrounding Montville, Connecticut).”
Traditionally, sports territories align with market boundaries used for broadcast media – but Connecticut has always been a unique case. Unlike larger states, most of Connecticut exists in just one media market – save for Fairfield County, which is nominally part of the New York City area.
If the report’s definition of the Sun’s territory is correct, a 75-mile radius out from the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort includes nearly all of Connecticut (except the most western towns of Fairfield and Litchfield counties), the whole of Rhode Island, and a good portion of Massachusetts including the greater Springfield area and the South Coast region. Notably, this distance doesn’t include Boston but does overlap most of the “Metro West” part of the Boston market including Worcester, and as close as Brookline, Mass.
The territory also includes significant overlap with the New York Liberty, if calculated the same way. From a bird’s eye view, the Sun also claims most of Long Island, which is usually associated with the New York City market.
Lasry’s bid, which would keep the team inside their current territory by playing their home games at Peoples Bank Arena in downtown Hartford, is also reportedly on thin ice. Another source for the CT Insider revealed that the WNBA told the Sun that the Hartford bid is a “waste of time,” since they’d prefer to move the team to a more lucrative city.
“If the team moves an inch for any portion of the season, it’s out of Connecticut,” their source said, referencing the league’s hardball attitude.
CT Insider also reports that the Mohegan Tribe would now rather sell to Lasry’s group, as long as the purchase price is the same or greater, since that bid’s based in Connecticut.
The league recently awarded expansion teams to Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Mich; and Philadelphia, PA. following the 2024 announcements of a new team for Toronto, Ontario and a revival in Portland, Ore. – but Houston, Texas “would be up next for sure,” Cathy Engelbert said in June.
The city is currently host to the NBA’s Rockets and MLB and NFL teams. Houston previously also had a WNBA team, the Comets, from the league’s founding in 1997 until 2008 – but it shut down due to financial issues and ownership shifts. That club won the first four WNBA championship titles – in a row.
The current owners of the Rockets submitted a bid for a new WNBA team as part of the recent expansion process, but it reportedly fell short of that $250 million expansion fee. Houston would be one of those cities “with priority,” but it’s muddy when the league considers expansion and relocation equally – especially since they didn’t in the past.
Reports also suggest the league is eager to assert their plans and cash in with a similar relocation fee, since money from a team sale would just go to the team’s owners. When the league offered to buy the Sun, they’d waive that relocation fee to sell to a group of its choosing, the ESPN report said.
“I think it’s a bad idea for the league to try to take this team out of Connecticut to some other area,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam told reporters before these developments. “I think it would be great for the league to continue to expand…but we would ask that they not intentionally try to steer a team out of Connecticut, which is a place that has supported the women’s basketball game for decades.”
Throughout history, many sports teams have moved – even in the WNBA’s short timeline. Arulampalam previously likened the Sun’s situation to when the City of Cleveland, Ohio and fans sued the NFL in the ‘90s over a potential Browns move – an ordeal that ended in compromise. Others remember the Raiders’ successful antitrust suit in the ‘80s, which allowed that team to move from a California suburb to Los Angeles.
Could the same happen here? Even without the notion of legal action, the Mohegan Tribe could keep a majority stake in the team and sell a partial interest – say, to Lasry’s group. The Sun could then play some of their home games at Mohegan Sun and the rest in Hartford. If the league is looking for “bigger and better,” the Peoples Bank Arena’s multimillion dollar renovation should satisfy – already seating more than other WNBA teams’ arenas. Perhaps the Sun could even play some games at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. (affectionately known to Big East fans as “The Dunk”) or the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, Mass. — both located inside their territory. It is unclear about what aspects of such an arrangement could go against the league’s current rules.
Multiple WNBA teams have moved venues or split time within their market, like the New York Liberty, Chicago Sky, and Seattle Storm. Not to mention special games, exhibitions and one-time events in other venues, not unlike the Sun’s contests in Boston or the NBA hosting the Celtics vs. Knicks over the years in Uncasville and Hartford.
I think it’s a bad idea for the league to try to take this team out of Connecticut to some other area
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam
All the same, the Mohegan Tribe could choose not to sell after all and return to the status quo, but it looks like any prospective team owner looking to sell could face the same trials.
With questions still unanswered, the Sun could end up being a casualty of the WNBA’s business-first decisions — poised to slight not just current fans but the whole of New England if the team is forced out from its Nutmeg home. For folks in the “Basketball Capital of the World,” supporters of women’s basketball before it was cool — the thought is disparaging, but at least the Sun will continue to play in Connecticut through the 2026 season.
“I know there’s still uncertainty about the future, but our loyal fans, they’re excited to be able to watch this team grow,” team president (and UConn great) Jennifer Rizzotti said at a press conference after news of the Boston bid broke. “If it ends up being our last year here, we’re going to make sure we blow it out.”
Thousands of social media posts and calls to public officials have been made to keep the Sun in our state, WFSB Channel 3 reports. Before these developments, Governor Lamont told reporters that “[The State of Connecticut] will do what it takes to keep the Sun in Connecticut.”
For more information about the Connecticut Sun and the WNBA, visit sun.wnba.com.