Fueled by a public rivalry between superstars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has leveled up in popularity over the past year. In Boston, the sports capital of America, the WNBA is still largely out of sight and out of mind. This reality isn’t because of an underlying sexist prejudice in Boston but rather the result of corrupt actions from the league’s front office.
Although the Connecticut Sun is New England’s only WNBA team, they never come up in conversation among the local Titletown teams. But is it really fair to blame Bostonians for a lack of team spirit? After all, who has the time on a Monday night for a four-hour round trip from Boston to Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut?
When news broke out in July that a group led by Boston Celtics Minority Owner Steve Pagliuca came to an agreement with the Mohegan Tribe for the purchase and relocation of the Connecticut Sun to Boston, it seemed like there was a bright future for the WNBA in Boston. On top of buying the team for a WNBA record-breaking $325 million, Pagliuca’s bid guaranteed the construction of an additional $100 million practice facility and that playing would begin as early as 2027 at TD Garden. The Mohegan Tribe signed the deal, and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared July 15 “WNBA Day in Boston,” enthusiastically stating: “We’re ready for a WNBA team in Boston.” Awaiting only approval from the WNBA Board of Governors, it seemed like the Sun’s move to Boston was right around the corner. But then the story went cold.
“You read that correctly. The Commissioner of the WNBA herself was responsible for restricting the league’s growth.”
With the Boston Celtics entering another season without a WNBA counterpart, I decided to get to the bottom of what happened. It turns out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert never presented the offer to the league’s board of governors, stalling out the deal’s month-long exclusivity window. Yes, you read that correctly. The Commissioner of the WNBA herself was responsible for restricting the league’s growth. At Mohegan Sun Arena, the Sun saw an average of 8,451 fans per game last season. The two times they played at TD Garden? Sold-out crowds of 19,000. If the numbers speak for themselves, why would the league be against the team relocating?
The WNBA claimed that Boston had to “wait its turn.” The WNBA denied the bid because it “broke procedure” by being proposed
outside of the expansion window, which ended in January 2025. The league claimed that focus should be on the three new franchises, which were awarded on June 30 to Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland, and that priority for future expansion should be given to the nine other cities that applied before the deadline.
While everything the WNBA claimed may be true, I still couldn’t understand why the creation of new teams in other parts of the country had anything to do with the relocation of the Sun to Boston.
The truth is that the WNBA has a separate, corrupt motive at play: money. By blocking the deal and pushing Boston off to a later expansion window, the league would receive a much larger $250 million expansion fee from the city if a new team were created. With the approved new teams entering the WNBA over the next four years, it’s expected that the next expansion window won’t be until 2030. In the meantime, the WNBA has floated the idea of buying the Suns themselves and relocating the team in a sale to Houston, a city that has “already made an expansion bid.” In doing so, the league would be denying Boston its relocation deal, only to make a fatter cut by doing one themselves. Talk about a gross conflict of interest.
It’s hard to dismiss the idea that corruption is at hand, especially when Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has issued the WNBA a warning against potential antitrust law violations.
With the next few years looking like rebuilding seasons for the Celtics, and the WNBA riding a wave of nationwide attention, now is an ideal time for a women’s basketball team to come to Boston. If it can’t be the Sun, okay, but there’s no assurance that these pristine conditions will remain for the next four years. Boston is an untapped market for the sport, and it would be sad to see the future growth of the league sacrificed by administrative greed today.
