On Friday, the 5-21 Connecticut Sun defeated the reigning WNBA champions, the New York Liberty. The stunning upset marked the first time since 2022 that the Sun had beaten the Liberty.
But on Saturday, the franchise’s future overshadowed the present, as The Boston Globe reported that a deal has been reached with the Mohegan Tribe to purchase the Sun for $325 million and relocate them to Boston in 2027. The group of buyers is led by Boston Celtics minority governor Steve Pagliuca.
The deal has not been made official and requires approval by the WNBA and its Board of Governors, which includes the owners of each team. But if it goes through, the deal will be historic and mark the highest price ever paid for a women’s professional sports team.
Pagliuca, per the Globe, plans on contributing $100 million to build a new practice facility. He also wants the Sun, who currently play at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, to play home games at TD Garden alongside the Celtics and the NHL’s Boston Bruins.
The Sun played at TD Garden for one game this season, a loss to the Indiana Fever on July 15. They drew a sold-out crowd of over 19,000 fans for the second year in a row. Across all of their home games this season, they are averaging just under 9,000 fans per game, which is higher than they drew in past years but one of the lower numbers in the WNBA this season.
If the deal gets approved, this will be the second relocation in the Sun’s history. The Mohegan Tribe purchased the then-Orlando Miracle in 2002 and paid a $10 million expansion fee to move them to Connecticut, making the tribe the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team.
News of the Sun potentially moving to Boston has circulated since the start of the 2025 WNBA season, and there have been questions about it since the team started playing games there. In May, Sportico reported that Sun owners hired Allen & Company, an investment bank, to “explore the potential sale of the team.” Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti confirmed the team was exploring its options.
In July, AJ Gerritson, the spokesperson for Boston Women’s Basketball Partners (BWBP), told the Globe that the Mohegan Tribe wanted a buyer who would keep the Sun in Connecticut and that the BWBP would look to bring an expansion franchise to Boston. That month, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey also called for a team in Boston.
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Following the Globe’s report on Saturday, the WNBA released a statement that touched on both relocation and expansion:
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams. As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration. 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. Celtics’ prospective owner Bill Chisholm has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.”
The Sun are set to play the Liberty again on Sunday — continuing their season at Mohegan Sun Arena.