The Connecticut Sun could soon rise over Boston if a purported deal goes through, but Gov. Dan McKee isn’t ready to walk off the court just yet when it comes to potentially hosting the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team.
The Boston Globe reported Saturday that former Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca’s PagsGroup wants to relocate the WNBA team from Uncasville, Connecticut, to Boston’s TD Garden by 2027. The deal has a record-smashing $325 million price tag attached, plus $100 million for a new training facility, the Globe reported.
The deal would transfer the team from its current owners, the Mohegan Tribe, but it still needs to be approved by the WNBA and its board of governors. But a statement Pagliuca posted Sunday evening to X has fueled speculation that Rhode Island could still be involved in some capacity.
“An investor group led by PagsGroup, and supported by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee, has offered to acquire the Connecticut Sun with the objective of keeping New England’s WNBA team in New England,” Pagliuca wrote. “No transaction has been agreed yet.”
McKee spokesperson Laura Hart sent a statement Monday, identical to the one she had previously sent media outlets over the weekend when news of the possible Boston deal first broke.
“We have made our interest to work with the team known and are open to future conversations about a potential role for Providence,” Hart wrote.
McKee toured the AMP (Amica Mutual Pavilion) last month with a then-unnamed investor team. WPRI-TV, who first reported the tour, wrote on Monday that it was Pagliuca’s team who had toured the AMP with McKee on July 11.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey reposted the Globe story to her X account and noted that the Sun had recently played their second sold-out game at TD Garden.
“The fans are here. The energy is here. All we need is a team,” Healey wrote. “This would be a great opportunity for the players, for the WNBA, and for Massachusetts.”
WNBA teams play 44 regular-season games, plus playoffs and an in-season tournament. If moved to Boston, the Sun’s schedule could occasionally conflict with TD Garden’s other occupants, the Celtics and Bruins. That could leave Providence’s AMP as the temporary locale for some games.
Meanwhile, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is backing an alternate bid to keep the team in Connecticut. That deal is being brokered by a group led by Marc Lasry, the former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and would see the Sun transported to the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, about a 45 minute-drive from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville. The Hartford Courant reported Monday that the Lasry deal also exceeds $300 million and would include money for a training facility.
A WNBA statement to the Globe emphasized that nothing final has been decided: “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,” the statement continued. “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.”
Pagliuca wrote on X that his group will continue to work with the WNBA as the process “unfolds.”
“Our offer is subject to obtaining the required league approvals, as is the case for all such transactions,” Pagliuca wrote. “This approval has not been obtained thus far, and we cannot proceed without it. We will respect, cooperate with, and abide by all league rules and decisions on these matters. As passionate basketball fans and strong believers in women’s professional sports, we remain excited by this opportunity and would be honored to serve as the next stewards of this franchise, if the transaction can be approved.”
For now, though, the Sun has told season ticket holders that the team will stay in Mohegan Sun Arena through 2026. The team sold out of season tickets for the first time in May.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
