UNCASVILLE, Conn. — A group led by Steve Pagliuca, a minority owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, has reached a deal to buy the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun for a record $325 million and move the team to the Massachusetts capital, according to a person familiar with the sale.
The franchise wouldn’t play in Boston until the 2027 season. Pagliuca also would contribute $100 million for a new practice facility in Boston for the team, the person said.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Saturday because the deal hasn’t been publicly announced. The sale is pending approval by the league.
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” the league said in a statement released Saturday
The Sun have played one regular-season game each of the past two years at TD Garden, the home of the Celtics, including one in July against the Indiana Fever, who have drown big crowds wherever they go since selecting star guard Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick of the 2024 WNBA draft.
The league has announced five expansion teams that will begin play over the next five seasons, with Portland (2026), Toronto (2026), Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030) joining the WNBA. Each paid a record $250 million expansion fee.
Nine other cities made bids for expansion teams, including Houston, which the league singled out as getting a team in the future when it announced Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia in June. Boston did not.
“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,” the league statement issued Saturday read. “Celtics’ prospective ownership team has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.”
The Boston Globe first reported the sale.
The Sun are owned by the Mohegan Tribe, which runs the casino where the team has played since 2003. The Tribe bought the franchise for $10 million and relocated it from Orlando that year. The Connecticut franchise was the first in the league to be run by someone who did not also own an NBA team and also became the first to turn a profit.
The team announced in May that it was searching for a potential buyer for the franchise and had hired investment bank Allen & Company to conduct the probe.
The WNBA has experienced rapid growth the last few seasons and ownership groups have been investing more into their teams, including player experiences. That has come in the way of practice facilities. The Sun are one of the few teams in the league that haven’t announced any plans for a new training facility.
Connecticut practices either at the arena in the casino or a local community center.
Despite the lack of facilities, the Sun have been one of the most successful teams in the league, making the playoffs in 16 seasons, including a run of six straight semifinal appearances, but the team was hit hard during the most recent offseason, with the entire starting five from last season leaving either via free agency or trade.
Connecticut is currently in last place in the WNBA at 5-21. The team sent out a letter to season ticket holders last week saying they’d still be playing at the casino next year.
The last sale of a WNBA franchise took place in 2021, when real estate investor Larry Gottesdiener led a group that bought the Atlanta Dream for less than $10 million. A year earlier, Mark Davis — the owner of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders — paid roughly $2 million for the Las Vegas Aces.