Every winter, Boston Bruins and Celtics fans fill TD Garden to watch their sports teams compete. But on Tuesday, they will fill the stands to watch the WNBA in an event that will hold a lot of meaning for the Connecticut Sun.
The Sun will face the Los Angeles Sparks at TD Garden at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. It will be the first WNBA game ever played in the arena.
The Sun announced on Friday that the game is officially sold out after selling 19,165 tickets. That is the largest number of tickets sold for a single game in franchise history. It’s nearly twice the capacity of Connecticut’s usual home, the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.
The growth of women’s basketball has been rapid, especially in the past few years. That opens up questions for the Sun regarding what’s next and how they can grow.
Veteran Sun forward Alyssa Thomas has seen some of the possibilities and highs that the Sun can reach from her experiences over the years.
“I think one thing with playing on Team USA and being around other players that are in [WNBA] markets that are the staple of what you want your organization to be in, [it shows that] honestly Connecticut is super behind when it comes to that,” Thomas told reporters on Wednesday.
“And I’ve been here 11 years and yes, we’ve made changes, but a lot of things still have so much room for improvement. And women’s basketball is hot right now and so many people want to support what we’re doing, and I think going to Boston is a huge step to a market that is bigger.”
In recent years, WNBA franchises including the Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky have announced plans to build new practice facilities or that they have completed building those facilities. The Sun don’t have the same resources as some of those teams have or will have.
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“We need our own practice facility and things like that because the time is now and people want to come and stay in the cities and train like that,” Thomas said. “And not a lot of people want to stay in Connecticut and we don’t have the facilities that you could train in all year round in that aspect, so I’m excited for Boston.
“Yes, Connecticut has been our home, but we just want to continue to grow our fan base, and in Boston is the next step.”
Fewer professional players are choosing to go overseas to play in the offseason because they now have the choice to stay in the United States and play. That’s due to some new opportunities that have been introduced.
For example, WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are starting the Unrivaled league this offseason. The league will only run for eight weeks, though, so players will need somewhere else to train for the rest of the offseason. Opportunities like this may make WNBA practice facilities needed now more than ever.
“There’s so many great experiences with going overseas. What’s going to be great about the opportunity now is it can be a choice and not a necessity,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said earlier this month. “And so you can be a little pickier on where you’re going and what culture you want to experience and making sure you’re going to safe spaces if you choose to go over there, but you don’t have to.
“And the opportunity to make money in the United States, the opportunity to continue to be around your friends and family … that’s probably the one thing that you miss most. I’m proud of the movement that’s continued to happen and the opportunities that these young players have.”
UConn fans have supported the Sun during the college basketball offseason over the years, but the Sun are looking to expand the fan base into the Boston area.
“We have a great fan base. UConn is a big reason for that,” Thomas said. “They love their basketball and they’ve supported us over the years, and a lot hasn’t changed in Connecticut. This room we’re in now has been the same since before my time.
“So we are growing as a franchise, but … [it is] time for a change, and we want to continue just to have a different fan base. And when you look at things on social media, where other franchises are and where we are, clearly we are still behind in many areas. And it’s crazy to say that when we’ve made playoffs so many different times and have won a lot of basketball. So you just want to continue to see this grow to what it can be, and I still think we have a long way to go.”
Sun guard and Newton, Massachusetts, native Veronica Burton will have a “full-circle moment” playing in Boston, she told reporters earlier this month.
“[It is] very exciting for sure, just to be able to have so many friends and family attend and play in an arena that is so idolized for a lot of us growing up there. And there’s been so many championships at the Garden, so it is really cool to be able to have my own game there,” she said.
The Boston fan base is one that Burton has known and loved.
“[The Boston/New England area] takes a lot of pride in its sports for sure,” she said. “I think when you get outside of New England, people are not necessarily fans of Boston or rooting for Boston. I think they take even more pride in that. It’s incredible, I think, to see the different fan bases and to see the kind of community that sports brings in the Boston area and all of New England through the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins, the Red Sox, whatever it may be.
“To be able to bring the WNBA game to Boston, it’s really exciting and hopefully sparks something there in the future.”
Sun forward Brionna Jones similarly can’t wait to be part of this game and make history with the franchise.
“I’m excited. I think bringing the Connecticut Sun fans and brand to Boston and moving to a new marketing area, it’s exciting for women’s basketball in general to play at TD Garden, such a prestigious place to play,” she said on Aug. 8.
So is bringing the WNBA to Boston more often in the league’s future? Will a new franchise — or even the Sun — call TD Garden home one day?
Those are questions that will only be answered with time as the league and women’s basketball continue to grow.
“From what I hear, Boston is selling a lot of tickets … almost double of what we can hold in our arena,” Thomas said. “That’s exciting that maybe we need a bigger venue. Maybe we’ve been underselling this for so long.
“I think this is what Boston is going to bring, just to see what this franchise can really reach.”