The Mohegan Tribe may not decide to sell the Connecticut Sun after all. That decision would go directly against the wishes of the WNBA as it tries to get a team into a bigger market like Boston.
And yet, there is nothing the league can do!
This latest WNBA report presents a few different scenarios for how this prospective sale could go down. It also suggests that a sale may not happen at all.
The WNBA wants to expand.
As the league continues to grow in popularity, it is planning to grow from 13 teams in 2025 to 18 teams by 2030 with the addition of new franchises in Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto and Portland. The plan is to also move the Sun from Connecticut to Boston.
Connecticut played a game at TD Garden in Boston earlier this year. All 19,125 seats were completely sold out.
There is no question that the Boston market (ha, Boston Market) is there. Meanwhile, the Sun’s current situation in Connecticut is less than ideal.
Facilities are among the worst in the league. Players were forced to share their practice facility with a child’s birthday party as recently as last year. Not great.
With all of this in mind, the WNBA is actively encouraging the ownership group of the Connecticut Sun to sell the team. The team would then move to Massachusetts.
In fact, a Boston-based group led by Steve Pagliuca offered $325 million to buy the Connecticut Sun and relocate the team to Boston in July, with plans to fund a $100 million practice facility. Although the deal was agreed upon by the Mohegan Tribe (which currently owns the Sun) it was never presented to the WNBA’s Board of Governors, and thus, stalled out.
Another group wants to move the team to Hartford. Other options include more favorable markets like Houston.
The WNBA further complicated matters by offering to buy the team for $75 million less than private offers and waive the standard location fee. The league’s interference undermines fair market competition and signals disregard for the local fanbase that is already established. It’s a whole thing.
Will the Mohegan Tribe sell the Connecticut Sun?
The Mohegan Tribe is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in Connecticut. It is perhaps best known for operating the Mohegan Sun casino and for being the first tribe to own a pro sports team.
This entire sale of the Sun hinges upon the Mohegan Tribe’s willingness to sell. Nothing more can be done if the owners don’t want to sell.
No Boston. No Houston. Nothing.
That could be how this ends. According to Michael Silverman, the Mohegan Tribe might sit put.
“There may be no deal to make,” he wrote. “After receiving robust resistance from the WNBA to sell a team to new owners who would want to move the team to Boston or Hartford, the Mohegan Tribe is contemplating taking the team off the market.”
It would be a much better option for the Mohegan Tribe to take the Connecticut Sun off of the market instead of being extorted into selling at a price below what was previously offered. They could even bring the team to Hartford without any penalty.
If that is what ends up happening, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert will be at fault. The league got the faintest whiff of money and immediately bungled this entire process!