Pags to buy Connecticut Sun, move them to Boston

[Roy H.]

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.

[Jiri Welsch]

I assume they'll play their games at the Garden?

[Surferdad]

I assume they'll play their games at the Garden?

I really wonder what Pags is thinking here. The Sun won?t have their own arena and likely cannot afford to build. Also building a new arena is proving difficult in the greater Boston area. The Bruins own TD Garden and I am not sure if there are many open event slots for another team.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Man, he went from being a part owner of the Celtics to being a part owner of a WNBA team...hmmmm.

[Roy H.]

I assume they'll play their games at the Garden?

I really wonder what Pags is thinking here. The Sun won?t have their own arena and likely cannot afford to build. Also building a new arena is proving difficult in the greater Boston area. The Bruins own TD Garden and I am not sure if there are many open event slots for another team.

I've got to think that he has a plan in place.  But you're right, Wyc cited lack of a viable arena as a reason there wasn't a WNBA team here.

[ChillyWilly]

I'm really surprised a WNBA team was worth hundreds of millions.

Didn't the WNBA selloff like 15-20% of their entire league just a few years ago to financial group made up of popular rich people to help float the league for under $100m?

I get they have a new TV deal and that its much larger than they had before but it's still very small.

$425m investment feels like he could have bought half the league.

[Roy H.]

The Mohegan Tribe?s ambition to sell and relocate the Connecticut Sun to Boston for a record $325M has created tension within the league office, sources said, leading to a terse WNBA statement Saturday that the nine cities who lost recent expansion bids ?currently have priority over Boston? and inferring that the Tribe could be forced to sell to one of those cities instead. Those sources said that the Sun, over recent months, has shunned other cities that have inquired about buying the team -- refusing to take meetings with bidders outside of Boston, for instance -- and ?hasn?t been great in how they have handled? the prospective sale. ?They just don?t feel like the league has any control over their process,? the source said. ?It will get much worse before it gets better.?

That seems like a bad take by the WNBA.  They'd rather surrender New England completely rather than letting the team move to the Boston area?

[boscel33]

The Mohegan Tribe?s ambition to sell and relocate the Connecticut Sun to Boston for a record $325M has created tension within the league office, sources said, leading to a terse WNBA statement Saturday that the nine cities who lost recent expansion bids ?currently have priority over Boston? and inferring that the Tribe could be forced to sell to one of those cities instead. Those sources said that the Sun, over recent months, has shunned other cities that have inquired about buying the team -- refusing to take meetings with bidders outside of Boston, for instance -- and ?hasn?t been great in how they have handled? the prospective sale. ?They just don?t feel like the league has any control over their process,? the source said. ?It will get much worse before it gets better.?

That seems like a bad take by the WNBA.  They'd rather surrender New England completely rather than letting the team move to the Boston area?

There's no way.  No one else is stepping up to pay that.  I think I read that Atl was the last team sold, for around 10M-14M.

[ozgod]

As Roy mentioned, the WNBA and its Board of Governors has put the kibosh on Pags's offer to buy the Sun, saying it's not his decision, but their decision.

The league?s statement, which Pagliuca responded to Sunday night, is an absolute head-scratcher, putting the brakes on everything good about the potential sale, stifling so much remarkably positive news.

Like a kid who doesn?t want to be told what to do, the league would really rather take the ball and go home, ignoring the incredible boost this sale would mean for public perception, for Boston, for players, and for the current owners of the Sun? Just because it doesn?t quite follow the normal expansion path?

?Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,? the statement opened, citing the June decision to award franchises to Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, cities that joined recent and future teams in Golden State, Toronto, and Portland, Ore. As the statement pointed out, ?nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration,? and that ?no groups from Boston applied for a team at that time.?

Using ?the extensive work [those other cities] did as part of the expansion process? as their defense, the league said all of them ?have priority over Boston.? Words that make it clear Boston wouldn?t be in their expansion mix until 2033 at the earliest.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/03/sports/tara-sullivan-connecticut-sun-boston/

It's worth noting that Pags's offer to buy the team and relocate it to Boston is not a request for an expansion team, it's a proposal to spend $325m to relocate the team from a small arena where the team doesn't have its own practice facility (Pags would spend an additional $100m to build one) and a way to bail out an ownership group that is in financial difficulties. But apparently WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the Board of Governors are miffed they weren't asked first.