Connecticut Sun sold to group led by Celtics minority owner with intention of moving team to Boston: Reports

New York Times

4 days ago

A group led by Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is purchasing the Connecticut Sun for a record $325 million and putting another $100 million towards a team-specific practice facility, with the intention of moving the team to Boston, according to multiple reports.
The move could come as soon as the 2027 season, according to The Associated Press. News of the sale was first reported by the Boston Globe.
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The Sun have played one regular-season game in Boston's TD Garden in each of the past two seasons, with both being sellouts.
'Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams. 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,' a WNBA spokesperson told The Athletic. '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. Celtics' prospective ownership has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.'
The Athletic reported in March the Sun were exploring a sale — whether that was a partial stake for a capital investment or the full franchise — at a time when the team's parent company, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA), had a total debt of $3.1 billion, more than $470 million of which was set to mature in the 2025 fiscal year.
Any sale is pending the Board of Governors approval.
Connecticut's basketball operations are coming off a tumultuous offseason. Following six seasons of advancing to at least the WNBA semifinals, the roster experienced wholesale turnover. All five 2024 starters are now on different teams, including multi-time All-Stars Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones. Coach Stephanie White also left for the Indiana Fever along with her two lead assistants.
Under a first-year head coach and a first-year general manager, the Sun started the season 5-21, worst in the WNBA. Their winning percentage of .192 would comfortably be the lowest in franchise history. In The Athletic's anonymous poll of WNBA players conducted during the first half of the season, Connecticut was voted the second-worst-run organization in the league behind Chicago, primarily due to a lack of infrastructure. The Sun practice either inside Mohegan Sun Arena or at the nearby Mohegan Tribal Community and Government Center — a mixed-use facility that also serves as a public space for tribal members, resulting in the occasional overlap of Connecticut practices with community events, like birthday parties. There were no plans for a Sun-specific practice facility in Connecticut.
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Pagliuca, 70, is the former co-chairman of Bain Capital and is the owner of the Italian Serie A club Atalanta.
He was one of the finalists for the sale of the Celtics, who were sold in March to Bill Chisholm, the managing partner of Symphony Technology Group, for $6.1 billion. After news broke that the Celtics would be sold to Chisholm, Pagliuca, who has been a minority owner of the Celtics since partnering with owner Wyc Grousbeck's family in 2002, said he was 'saddened' to find out that his majority ownership bid did not win out.
Back in July, Sun rookie Saniya Rivers endorsed a possible move of the franchise to Boston, saying, 'If it was up to me, we might relocate here. (Boston is) a great city, has great food, great shops — I love to shop. So just being able to come to the neighboring city and just play here, I think it (does) a lot for women's basketball in general.'
The price tag of $325 million is a coup for the MTGA after the Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia groups all paid a reported $250 million in expansion fees to join the league in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively. If the sale to Pagliuca's group goes through, the WNBA will add another owner with an NBA background, which has been an apparent priority for the league during expansion. All five of the upcoming expansion teams, plus the Golden State Valkyries, have NBA ties.
The Sun originated as the Orlando Miracle, playing in Orlando from 1999-2002. When the Miracle were sold to the Mohegan Tribe ahead of the 2003 season, the Sun both became the WNBA's first independently-owned franchise as well as the first Native American Tribe to own a professional American sports team.