Ahead of Sun's return to TD Garden, Governor Healey advocates for bringing a WNBA team to Boston

Boston Globe

15-07-2025

'This isn't a moment,' Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti told the room. 'This is a movement.'
One of that movement's strongest supporters was Governor Maura Healey, who played college basketball at Harvard and professionally in Austria. Knowing personally the doors that sports can open for women, Healey praised the Sun for bringing so many figures from so many corners of sports and business together in the name of women's sports.
'For me as a point guard, the greatest statistic was always the assist,' Healey said. 'The thing I love about basketball is it's a team game. So what you see in this room tonight is people making those connections, networking, assisting one another, lifting one another up, empowering one another, recognizing that this is a team sport.
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'Establishing greater equality in women's sports — for women, for girls — it's a team effort. And that's what I find really inspiring, seeing powerful women come together in united support for equality and fairness in women's sports. It's great to see.'
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Since Rizzotti was hired in 2021, the Sun expanded their focus to becoming a team that represented all of New England, and during that time their ties to Boston have gotten stronger.
Last year, the team used the winnings from their Commissioner's Cup victories to support reproductive health and justice initiatives. For their contribution, Boston-based nonprofit Reproductive Equity Now's honored them in May with the Ellen Paradise Fisher Activism in Action Award. Healey applauded the way the team used its influence beyond basketball.
'I think it shows how synched up they are with the city, the state, with New England,' Healey said. 'Their willingness to use their platform to talk about women's rights, to talk about equality, to talk about equal pay. These are things that, as Bay Staters, we have laws on the books to protect these things. So I appreciate the Sun using their platform to speak to these issues a lot of people in Massachusetts and New England care about.'
The on-court product in Boston has also been well received. The Sun sold out the Garden a year ago and were close to doing the same with 24 hours to tipoff.
Healey said the excitement level around the game was a sign of Boston's appetite for women's sports.
'There's a huge fan base here in Boston for the Sun, for the WNBA,' Healey said. 'People have been talking about it for months now. This is the hardest ticket to get — and I'm saying that in the context of this being a pretty big sports town.
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'It just speaks to the level of enthusiasm for the women's game, which is only growing and growing exponentially. I love to see the growth in the WNBA. We love to support the Sun as New Englanders. We'd love to see them come back here and play any time.'
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The WNBA is in a growth stage, expanding to 13 teams this season with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries. Toronto and Portland will join the league next season while franchises in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia will bring the total number of teams to 18 by 2030.
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Meanwhile, Healey continued to throw her full support of bringing women's basketball to Boston.
'I want to do everything I can to advocate for a team here in Boston,' she said. 'Boston, we are a major sports town known all over the globe as a sports hub. We certainly should have a team here. There's a ton of support, there's a ton of enthusiasm.'
Julian Benbow can be reached at