UNCASVILLE — An investment group led by billionaire Marc Lasry, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, is attempting to compete with an ownership group from Boston to purchase the Connecticut Sun, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Courant.
The group led by Lasry would keep the team in Connecticut, with a home at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. The Hartford group’s bid also exceeds $300 million and includes plans to construct a new dedicated practice facility for the team. The Mohegan Tribe had a period of exclusivity to sell to the Boston group, led by Celtics minority governor Steve Pagliuca, which has since expired, so both offers remain on the table.
The Boston Globe first reported on Saturday that the Mohegan Tribe reached an agreement to sell the Sun to the Pagliuca’s group, which aims to relocate the team to Boston as soon as 2027.
Pagliuca’s group would pay $325 million to purchase the Sun with plans to invest an additional $100 million to build the team a dedicated practice facility in Boston. The sale would be the largest in the history of women’s professional sports. The Mohegan Tribe spent approximately $10 million to relocate the franchise in 2003.
But Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti made clear Sunday that the team has not been officially sold.
“It’s been a thorough process, and we’re not quite at the finish line yet,” Rizzotti said. “But thinking about where this team was and where the league was and the news that has come out across the board in terms of expansion fees and valuations, I’m pretty proud as a team president to think about where our league has come and (of) a $325-plus million valuation.”
The Sun can’t be relocated from Connecticut without approval from the WNBA and its Board of Governors, and the Globe reported that the league could force the Mohegan Tribe to sell to an in-state buyer. The WNBA also put out a statement Saturday which noted that Boston did not put in a bid during the league’s most recent round of expansion and said nine bid cities that did not receive franchises “currently have priority over Boston.”
Connecticut Sun to remain at Mohegan Sun in 2026 as ownership evaluates strategic investment
While the buyer is still up in the air, a sale in the near future seems inevitable. Rizzotti said the Mohegan Tribe understands that it is struggling to compete with owners that have deeper pockets, particularly as multi-million dollar practice facilities become the standard around the league. Players are also entering the WNBA with larger fanbases and personal brands than ever before, and Rizzotti recognizes the difficulty in attracting young talent to the league’s smallest market.
“The tribe thought that Connecticut would be a great place for the WNBA, and they were right, and they invested in this team in so many different ways before it was popular,” Rizzotti said. “Have they gotten passed by? They know that in some ways … If you’re 22 coming out of college and you’re considering your brand and considering your opportunities in a major market, I don’t think it’s a slight on playing at Mohegan or in Connecticut, but I’m sure there’s a preference that they want to be in a market that’s bigger and where they’d be able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.”
Rizzotti has personally met with multiple prospective buyers throughout the tribe’s strategic breakdown of investment that began in the spring, and she cited the Sun’s one-off games at TD Garden as a strong argument for adding a WNBA presence in Boston. The team sold out more than 19,000 seats at the Celtics’ arena in each of the last two seasons, against the Los Angeles Sparks in 2024 and against the Indiana Fever in 2025. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy told the Globe she believes the franchise would make sense in Boston as “the hub of New England and the place where basketball was invented.”
But the Sun have a passionate existing following in Connecticut, selling out of season tickets this year for the first time in franchise history despite the departure of all five starters from the 2024 roster. The team is also averaging its highest-ever annual attendance of 8,937 fans per game in 2025 amid a 5-22 start to the season.
“Basketball is in Connecticut’s blood and folks around here aren’t going to let the Sun go without a fight,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said Sunday. “We have won almost ten times as many basketball championships as Boston has over the past three decades, and we didn’t just get into women’s basketball when Caitlin Clark entered the league. We have had a dedicated women’s basketball fan base for decades, and have shaped the evolution of the game.”
Sun superfan Jenni Trerice was in her usual spot on the railing beside the tunnel on Sunday ahead of the Sun’s game against the Liberty, just as she is before every game at Mohegan Sun Arena. Her hair was dyed bright orange to support the team as she greeted players and collected autographs on a vintage white jersey that is today as much ink as it is fabric.
Trerice has only been a Sun season ticket holder since 2024, but she began attending games regularly at 15 years old when the franchise relocated from Orlando to Uncasville in 2003. She underwent heart surgeries as a teenager, and watching her favorite players overcome injuries of their own on the court helped her through the difficulties of managing her disability. Trerice lives more than an hour from the arena in Terryville, but she rarely misses a game or fan event and has developed bonds with generations of Connecticut stars.
“Honestly if they weren’t here, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Trerice said Sunday before the Sun’s game against the New York Liberty. “They got me through everything … This is what I do in the summer. This is really all I do. I put the little bit of money I have towards this … It keeps my blood pumping coming here.”
Trerice wasn’t surprised when she saw the reports Saturday. But if Sun do leave Connecticut, Trerice said she’ll likely never attend another game.
“They’d betray me. That would be a traitor to us,” Trerice said. “Taking them out of here doesn’t make sense.”
Coventry resident Christine Pattee held season tickets back in the late 1990s when the American Basketball League (ABL) fielded a team in Hartford, the New England Blizzard, and she has been attending Sun games since the team’s first year in Uncasville. The 83-year-old superfan played basketball during the days when women were only allowed to compete on half courts, and she said she is thrilled to see the dramatic growth of the sport reflected in Connecticut’s record valuation.
“My feeling is, the tribe was supportive when nobody else was, so if they’re getting a financial return after 20 years, then good for them,” Pattee said at Sunday’s game. “The tribe put money into a basketball team when nobody cared, so if they make a 300% profit or whatever it is on this, good on them. A pair of season tickets were affordable, affordable, affordable back in the day. today I think my one seat is about $1,300, and I was willing to pay that.”
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UConn legend Tina Charles was drafted by the Sun in 2013 and has spent five of her 14 WNBA seasons in Connecticut, but the veteran superstar said her first reaction to the franchise’s potential relocation was excitement. Charles has never played a full season for a team that has its own dedicated practice facility, and she said she wants the next generation to experience a higher standard of investment as the norm.
“If (relocation) it does go through, … I’m just thankful it’ll still be in the New England area,” Charles said. “Hopefully the fans here are able to make games when their schedule allows if it is (Boston). But I’m just looking forward to the players moving on who will be there to be able to have the resources, to walk into a facility that really reflects what we deserve and what we should have, what our male counterparts have. So kudos to the person who wants to invest and wants to grow the game and keep it in New England.”
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