Steve Pagliuca, the multi-sport investor best known for his minority stake in the Boston Celtics National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, is reportedly leading a group that is set to strike a deal to acquire the Connecticut Sun WNBA team.
The reported $325 million acquisition would be a record not just for a WNBA team, but for any US women's sports franchise, putting it far in excess of the £200 million ($265 million) that English soccer side Chelsea sold its women’s team (to its own parent company) for.
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The last WNBA team sale (not including expansion team fees, which now number $250 million) was the Atlanta Dream, which were sold for less than $10 million in 2021, illustrating how rapid the league's commercial ascent has been in the last few years, powered by its latest media rights agreement.
It is said that Pagliuca plans to relocate the franchise from its home of Uncasville, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts, in the future.
While this move would not take place until the 2027 campaign, it would, however, see Pagliuca provide $100 million of investment into the construction of a new training facility in Boston for the team.
The Sun are currently one of the only WNBA franchises without a dedicated practice facility, while their arena at the Mohegan Sun, boasting a 9,000 capacity, is less than half of the Minnesota Lynx’s league-leading 20,000 capacity at Target Center.
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By GlobalDataIn moving the team to Boston, not only would the Sun gain access to a practice center and a larger arena, likely playing at the Boston Celtics’ 19,580-capacity TD Garden home, but would also benefit from being positioned in one of the richest sports markets in the US.
Indeed, Boston boasts sports franchises in every major men’s US league, including the NBA, and is also rapidly entering the women’s professional sports space, with the establishment of an NWSL soccer side, Boston Legacy FC, announced in 2024 and set for launch in 2026.
The Sun has played at TD Garden before, notching sell-outs in 2024 and 2025, and the prospect of being situated in both a larger sports market and a larger city in general may aid the team in attracting on- and off-the-court talent.
Any sale would require the assent of the WNBA and its board of governors, and Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti said over the weekend that the deal is “not quite at the finish line yet” in that regard.,
Rizzotti did, however, confirm that the team would remain in Connecticut in 2026.
The Sun is the only major league sports franchise based in Connecticut, with the most recent elite sports team in the state, the Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League, having been relocated to North Carolina in 1997.
Founded as an expansion franchise in 1999 as the Orlando Miracle (a sister team to the NBA’s Orlando Magic), the team was purchased by current owners the Mohegan native American tribe, and relocated to the tribe’s Mohegan Sun casino and arena in Uncasville in 2003.
For his part, Pagliuca is committed to the expansion of Boston sports both in basketball and otherwise.
Outside of being co-owner of the Celtics, Pagliuca also previously led a bid to stage the 2024 Olympic Games in Boston.
Pagliuca also owns Italian soccer side Atalanta, and professionally is the co-chair of private equity firm Bain Capital.
