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Report: Connecticut Sun could be purchased by ‘antagonistic’ WNBA to prevent move to Boston
"A source close to the ownership group says the tribe is frustrated and feels the league is presenting a one-path option."
Former Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca and his consortium put their money where their mouth was when it came to bringing the WNBA to Boston.
Earlier this month, Pagliuca confirmed that his group made a pitch to buy the Connecticut Sun — with The Boston Globe reporting that Pagliuca offered $325 million to the Mohegan Tribe to purchase the team with the intention of moving the franchise to Boston.
According to the Globe, the sale of the Sun to Pagliuca would also lead to Pagliuca contributing an additional $100 million for a new practice facility in Brighton.
That potential sale price would be a record for a sale of a women’s sports franchise, and would be a welcome sight for the Mohegan Tribe as they battle debt concerns that could threaten its solvency.
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While Front Office Sports reported that Pagliuca bid was agreed to by the tribe in early July, Pagliuca’s own statement earlier this month noted that the sale was not made official.
And based on new reports, it looks as though the WNBA has no intention of moving the Sun to Boston any time soon.
In a new story by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Alexa Philippou, the Sun are continuing to assess options in order to try and “salvage” the $325 million sale of the franchise — with the team seeking “clarity” from the league as far as the next steps after Pagliuca’s attempt to buy the team was met with “resistance” by the WNBA.
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“A source close to the ownership group says 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,” Shelburne and Philippou wrote. “The league, in recent weeks, offered to purchase the Sun for $250 million and not charge the buyer an additional relocation fee — which would allow the league to facilitate a sale to one of its preferred expansion cities, according to sources. That offer was presented before Pagliuca’s bid of $325 million was reported on Aug. 2, sources said.”
That $250 million price offered by the WNBA to move the Sun to a market of their choosing comes well short of the $325 million offered by Pagliuca, with the ESPN report noting that the Mohegan Tribe feels as though the league has become “antagonistic” about the sale process after it declined an early bid that would have relocated the team to Cleveland — one of the WNBA’s preferred expansion locations.
The WNBA’s icy sentiment toward the Pagliuca-led sale and a possible relocation to Boston was evident shortly after reports emerged about Pagliuca’s intent to buy the team.
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“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” the WNBA said in a statement to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn. “As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration.
“No groups from Boston applied for a team at that time and those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston.”
Both Shelburne and Philippou’s article expanded upon the WNBA’s reservations about moving the Sun to Boston, beyond just the most pressing sticking point that Boston did not submit an expansion proposal.
“The Sun played to sellout crowds at TD Garden in Boston two years in a row, with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in attendance,” Shelburne and Philippou wrote. “Sources said the league is concerned that TD Garden might not be able to host a full slate of games because of scheduling issues, meaning some home games would have to be played 50 miles away at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
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“The Pagliuca group does not believe that will be a significant issue, sources said.”
According to Shelburne and Philippou, the WNBA would consider a WNBA team in Boston in another round of expansion — adding that new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm would be the league’s “preferred owner” for that franchise.
“Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, who played collegiately at Harvard and has been trying to help bring a WNBA team to Boston, has already been in communication with Chisholm, sources said,” Shelburne and Philippou wrote.
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