6 days ago
WNBA could BLOCK team move to Boston as surprise third city enters the mix
As the WNBA faces a massive boom in popularity thanks to the likes of Caitlin Clark, the league reportedly has plans to step in and block a proposed re-location of one team - in order to move it elsewhere.
Earlier this month, the Boston Globe reported that former Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca put forth a $325million offer to move the Connecticut Sun.
The plan put forth by Pagliuca would see the team move to Boston in 2027.
However, this announced re-location has angered many fans in Connecticut - a state with a long tradition of women's basketball support thanks to the success of the UConn Huskies - and has led to a matched offer.
According to CT Insider, an ownership group comprising of the state and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry (a native of West Hartford) has matched - if not exceeded - Pagliuca's bid.
The Connecticut-focused group hopes to buy the team off the Mohegan Tribe - the current owners and the first Indigenous nation to own a professional sports team - and move the team from Uncasville, Connecticut to the state capital of Hartford. That report also indicates the Tribe is inclined to sell to owners who will keep the team in the state.
Plans would put the team in PeoplesBank Arena, which has a capacity of 15,684 for basketball. It would represent a big step up from Mohegan Sun Arena, which only holds 9,323.
However, the WNBA reportedly does not want the team to move to either city. Rather, they'd hope to put the Sun in a city that previously bid on expansion.
Boston did not put up a bid for expansion, with the league putting out a statement saying that other locations 'have priority'.
Bizarrely, this would also mean that Hartford would be eliminated from consideration despite being in the same media market as Uncasville (therefore rendering the need to bid on an expansion team useless). A source told CT Insider that the league's position was, 'If the team moves an inch for any portion of the season, it's out of Connecticut.'
Instead, according to FrontOfficeSports, the league prefers that the team move out of New England and to a different area entirely: Houston, Texas.
The league was hoping to make a return to the Bayou City, the former home of the four-time WNBA champion Houston Comets.
Tilman Fertitta - the owner of the NBA's Houston Rockets and the current US Ambassador to Italy - submitted an expansion bid to the WNBA, but reportedly fell short of the $250m expansion fee.
Instead, the league announced three expansion cities - Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that Houston was 'up next' when it comes to evaluating the next expansion bids.
The mayor of Hartford, Arunan Arulampalam, compared this situation to when the city of Cleveland sued the NFL in the mid-1990s amid the Browns' attempted move to Baltimore.
Eventually, an agreement between the city, the franchise, and the league was reached to allow both Baltimore and Cleveland to have teams.
In a statement to Daily Mail Sport, a WNBA spokesperson said, '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.'
Daily Mail Sport has also contacted the offices of the governor of Connecticut and attorney general of Connecticut for comment.
The Mohegan Tribe purchased the Sun in 2003 - moving the team from Orlando to Connecticut.
In that time, the team has reached the WNBA Finals three times - most recently in 2022 - but has never won a title.
The Sun also have the highest win percentage of any team in the WNBA at .570 and are second in all-time wins behind the Los Angeles Sparks.
