{"id":280617,"date":"2025-11-09T04:35:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T04:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280617\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T04:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T04:35:25","slug":"former-sun-ceo-reflects-on-bringing-wnba-team-to-ct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280617\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sun CEO reflects on bringing WNBA team to CT"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 30, 2002, Mitchell Etess had his first meeting with the WNBA<\/a> about moving the Orlando Miracle<\/a> to Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Less than a month later, Etess, then the executive vice president of marketing at the Mohegan Sun, watched as the announcement was made that the Orlando team would move to the casino<\/a> and become the Connecticut Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember standing in the back of the arena with Paul Munick (the Mohegan Sun vice president of sports and entertainment) and Chris Sienko (director of sports and entertainment) and we were like, \u2018OK, now what do we do?\u2019\u201d Etess said. \u201cIt was like the movie, \u2018The Candidate\u2019 with Robert Redford; he finally wins the election at the end, he says something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etess was one of the main forces that helped bring the WNBA team to the state, so he\u2019s a little saddened by the news that the team could potentially move to Boston, although the league has not signed off on the $325 million deal reported by the Boston Globe<\/a> Saturday and a Hartford-based group led by billionaire Marc Lasry is reportedly interested in trying to keep the team<\/a> in state.<\/p>\n

The sale and the move must be approved by the WNBA and its Board of Governors and neither Hartford nor Boston<\/a> applied for an expansion franchise, so there is a possibility that the Sun could be moved to one of the nine cities<\/a> that did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about it, since the sale was more formally announced, it has hit me more emotionally, no doubt about it,\u201d said Etess, the former CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. \u201cBut conversely, to have been part of bringing a team here and see it being sold for so much money, more than the expansion teams, per the reports, it\u2019s a really good feeling that kind of counteracts the sadness.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to know about billionaire investor Marc Lasry\u2019s bid to bring Connecticut Sun to Hartford<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Sun were Etess\u2019 baby; he had basketball-playing daughters and was interested in the game at a time when interest in the UConn women<\/a>, who had won three of the last four NCAA championships between 2000-2003, had reached a fever pitch in the state. The Mohegan Sun had an arena but no sports team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s basketball was popular here and it would help us become more settled in the community and the state,\u201d Etess said. \u201cIt\u2019s good programming in the arena. Women\u2019s basketball was a lot cheaper than having Bon Jovi. It was a source of pride for the tribe that they could buy a professional sports team. There was a business case for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the inception of the league, there was a cry for a team to be located in Connecticut. At the time, the WNBA would only allow teams to be placed in NBA arenas in NBA cities. But in the fall of 2002, with some teams struggling financially, the league\u2019s board of governors voted to open up ownership to outside sources.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaRebecca Lobo, center, holds up a Connecticut Sun jersey with Mitchell Etess, left, vice president of marketing at Mohegan Sun, and Christopher Sienko, right, general manager of the Connecticut Sun, during a news conference announcing Lobo’s signing to the team Friday, Feb. 14, 2003, at the Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The Sun acquired Lobo from the Houston Comets in exchange for a second-round draft pick. (AP Photo\/Norwich Bulletin, Rory Glaeseman) ORG XMIT: CTNOR101<\/p>\n

Jodi Rell<\/a>, then Connecticut\u2019s lieutenant governor, was interested in bringing a team to Hartford. Various groups of investors \u2013 including one led by LAZ Parking chairman Alan Lazowski and another led by Apple Health Care CEO Brian Foley \u2013 were interested in putting the team in the then-Hartford Civic Center, but there was concern about having a team up and running in only five months.<\/p>\n

The Mohegan Sun, however, had all the infrastructure in place \u2013 including a marketing team \u2013 and Sienko, who had served as the general manager of the New England Blizzard<\/a>, the ABL team that played in Hartford until that league went bankrupt in the winter of 1998.<\/p>\n

The WNBA wanted a team ready to go in the summer of 2003, but there was some trepidation about the team playing in a casino.<\/p>\n

Etess, who was given unanimous approval from the Mohegan Tribal Council to pursue a team, said it took a while for the WNBA to respond to his queries. Eventually, he said NBA commissioner David Stern called him and told him the league wanted the team in Hartford but if that didn\u2019t work out, Uncasville would be considered.<\/p>\n

The deal was worked out<\/a> and on Jan. 21, the WNBA announced the Miracle, with former UConn star Nykesha Sales<\/a>, was coming to Connecticut. The tribe paid $10 million for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris knew what he was doing, he had the (ABL) team in Hartford,\u201d Etess said. \u201cBut it takes more time than five months \u2013 it wasn\u2019t even five months \u2013 it takes more than that to get a team up and running with some momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no place to practice. We had no uniforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league had no collective bargaining agreement in place (the CBA was ratified in April 2003) so they couldn\u2019t go after players who weren\u2019t already on the team. They had no coach<\/a>. For years, Etess saved a phone message from NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, who recommended Mike Thibault<\/a> to coach the team. He remembers getting a call from Stern that former UConn star Rebecca Lobo would be coming to the Sun for its first season from the Houston Comets in exchange for a second-round pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t even do it,\u201d Etess said, laughing. \u201cIt was done for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"05\/01\/0305\/01\/03 — Forward Rebecca Lobo, right, shoots while forward Brooke Wyckoff laughs during the Mohegan Sun’s first practice on Thursday, May 1, 2003 at Connecticut College in New London. (tia ann chapman\/ the hartford courant).<\/p>\n

The gym at Connecticut College<\/a> was secured as a practice facility, but Etess remembered that in the summer they had to install a portable air conditioning unit because it was too hot in the gym.<\/p>\n

The Sun had their season opener May 24, 2003, losing to the Los Angeles Sparks, 84-73. The team finished its first season 18-16 and lost to the Detroit Shock in the Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first year \u2013 we had a lot of infrastructure at Mohegan Sun, but we didn\u2019t have a lot of things we needed,\u201d Etess said. \u201cOur first-year attendance wasn\u2019t all we hoped for, or the league hoped for, but after Year One, we really took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next two decades, the Sun went on to make four appearances in the WNBA Finals, the latest in 2023, but the team never won a title.<\/p>\n

In 2002, the league was at a turning point.<\/a> The Miami Sol and Miracle were cut loose from their NBA teams. The Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio. Nobody was talking about fancy practice facilities or players\u2019 salaries and the interest in the league was nowhere near what it is today.<\/p>\n

The Sun agreed to host the All-Star Game in 2005 and went on to host it three more times, the most of any arena. Mohegan Sun also hosted the WNBA draft three times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe W is where it is now, but there were times when no one wanted to have the All-Star game, so we said, \u2018We\u2019ll have the All-Star game,\u2019\u201d Etess said. \u201c \u2018We don\u2019t have anywhere to have the draft.\u2019 \u2018OK, we\u2019ll have the draft and we\u2019ll fill (the arena) with 3,000 screaming people.\u2019 Back in the day when the league was more struggling, we did a lot of stuff to keep it in the game.<\/p>\n

\"Uncasville,Uncasville, CT 7\/26\/13 Maya Moore celebrates after the “New School” team beat the “Old School” team of the West All Stars in a bank shot, 3 point shot and half court shot contest during the WNBA All-Star game practice sessions Friday afternoon. The game wil be played Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Photo by JOHN WOIKE | woike@courant.com hc-wnba-all-star-advance-0727<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you have people bidding on All-Star games and people bidding to pay for expansion teams. Back then, when a team went broke, finding a new place for it was hard. It\u2019s a whole \u2018nother level now. People didn\u2019t want to have the All-Star game, they saw it as an expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Etess served as a senior advisor to the Mohegan Tribe and CEO of the Connecticut Sun and was on the WNBA\u2019s Board of Governors. He retired in 2020 and now works as a consultant and does board work for various organizations around the country.<\/p>\n

Etess, who lives in Lyme, is still a fan and still goes to a few games now and then. He\u2019s enjoyed watching the popularity of the WNBA soar and still believes Connecticut is a viable place for a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you have the most successful (women\u2019s basketball) college team of all time here, it makes sense to have a professional team here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if there\u2019s more money to be made in a place where you can sell 19,000 tickets every night instead of 9,000, maybe that\u2019s the case but I don\u2019t think it has to be the case. I think the team can continue to be successful here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartford bid to purchase Connecticut Sun undeterred by reported lack of support from WNBA<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Dec. 30, 2002, Mitchell Etess had his first meeting with the WNBA about moving the Orlando Miracle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,8731,2000,20242,4384,15861,15862,148564,983,63868,28017,148563,99,434,2088],"class_list":["post-280617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-news","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-ct-news","tag-hartford-courant","tag-jodi-rell","tag-local-news","tag-mohegan-sun","tag-mohegan-tribe","tag-orlando-miracle","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}