Sale Pending: Will the Sun Relocate to Boston, Hartford, or Somewhere Else? By Anthony Price   The sale is no longer a rumor. The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has agreed to sell the Connecticut Sun to Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca for $325 million. If the WNBA approves the deal, the Sun will play one more season in Connecticut before relocating to Boston’s TD Garden in 2027. Pagliuca’s plan includes building a $100 million state-of-the-art practice facility—something the franchise has never had, and former players often complained about. The move is about market size, money, and momentum: Boston’s metro area is more than twice the size of Hartford–New Haven and ranks as the 10th-largest TV market in the nation. Add in a deep corporate sponsorship pool, and the Sun would instantly join the city’s pro sports pantheon alongside the Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, Revolution, and soon the Boston Legacy FC women’s soccer team. It’s a seismic shift for Connecticut fans, stirring painful memories of the Hartford Whalers skating off to Raleigh in the late ’90s. Against that backdrop, the “reset” first-year GM Morgan Tuck promised at the beginning of the season is no longer just talk–it’s carved in stone. Sunday’s 94-86 loss to the Las Vegas Aces – where A’ja Wilson became the first WNBA player ever to score 30 points and 20 rebounds–dropped the Sun to 5-25. This is far from the season President Jennifer Rizzotti and Tuck envisioned in April. It’s a seismic shift for Connecticut fans, stirring painful memories of the Hartford Whalers skating off to Raleigh in the late ’90s.  Connecticut Sun President Jennifer Rizzotti at press conference. Photo: Anthony Price The collapse has many causes: five starters gone from last season’s playoff team, 10 new roster spots, a denied trade request from veteran Marina Mabrey, her nine-game injury absence, and French head coach Rachid Meziane having his hands full implementing his European system. Add the turbulence of a possible sale announced at the beginning of the season, and you have a young, inexperienced team swamped by distractions. By the Numbers: The Business Behind the Sale
  Saniya Rivers talks to the press. Photo: Anthony Price Hartford: Last-Ditch Effort Don’t pack the moving truck just yet. Billionaire Marc Lasry, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks who was raised in West Hartford, has submitted a competing $300+ million bid for the Sun, the Hartford Courant reported. His plan: move the team to Hartford, play at the renovated Peoples Bank Arena (formerly the XL Center), and build a new practice facility. The arena—built in 1975 and now undergoing $145 million in upgrades—can seat just under 16,000 for basketball, larger than Mohegan Sun Arena but smaller than most NBA venues. Hartford has a case. UConn’s men’s and women’s teams have thrived in a small market, and in the NBA, franchises in even smaller TV markets—Oklahoma City (47), Milwaukee (38), Memphis (51)—have won titles. Make It About the Players “The economics about keeping a team in an obscure location in Connecticut has certainly changed, I think,” said Victor Matheson, a college professor at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and an expert on sports economics. “There’s just nothing by the casinos,” he said on the telephone. “Again, Uncasville is really small…at least Green Bay is actually a city,” he said, referring to the NFL’s Packers. “New London is barely a city, and that’s still outside where the casino is.” The sale may have more to do with the economics of the casino business than basketball. “Both of those casinos [Mohegan Sun & Foxwoods] are in significant trouble, like casinos everywhere in the country, because they no longer have a monopoly on New England,” Matheson stated. In late April, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority issued $1.2 billion in secured notes to refinance its outstanding debt, Tribe Business News reported. This was after it lost operating control of South Korean INSPIRE Entertainment Resort to Bain Capital, a $185 billion-dollar investment firm based in Boston.  Victor Matheson at Connecticut Sun game on August 13, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Matheson.  Victor Matheson in his office. Photo: CBSNews The economics about keeping a team in an obscure location in Connecticut has certainly changed. Economist Matheson is usually against using public money for sports teams, but says Hartford could argue for quality-of-life benefits: “You know if you’re Hartford and you say, ‘Hey, we’re going to subsidize a downtown arena because we want concerts to come through and we want WNBA games, NCAA March Madness women’s games.’ We want all these things that make Hartford more livable, but they’re not likely to make Hartford rich.” Whoever purchases the Sun will face the same reality: they must focus on a first-rate experience for the players. That’s how teams plan to entice over 100 free agents next season, once a new collective bargaining agreement is in place. Young players want vibrant, accessible cities. Hartford would be an upgrade over Uncasville, but Boston’s amenities and the NBA’s preference for WNBA teams in NBA arenas give Pagliuca an edge. For now, the Sun remain in Uncasville. The season isn’t over, and the young players are not throwing in the towel because they seem to be having fun. If you watch basketball, and you’re an optimist, you know it’s not over until the clock reaches zero. Anything is possible. ### Anthony Price is an entrepreneur, author and publisher of CT Hoops Magazine. Around the Sun is a weekly column about the Connecticut Sun.
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