What Connecticut Sun president said about WNBA team’s reported move to Boston

By Conor Ryan Send this article to your social connections.

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Just a day after a report from The Boston Globe said that Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca had agreed to a deal to purchase the Connecticut Sun with the intention of moving the WNBA franchise to Boston by 2027, Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti offered some additional context about the teams future.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday ahead of the Suns game against the New York Liberty, Rizzotti said that the Mohegan Tribe who currently own the Sun have not officially sold the franchise to Pagliuca or any other group.

Contrary to some of the articles that were out yesterday, the team has not been sold ...

Unless it comes out of official Connecticut Sun or Mohegan Sun channels, its not official, Rizzotti told MassLives Kenneth Manoj.

Any sale or relocation is subject to board approval, so its like non-disclosure agreement comes into play, so were not allowed to actually talk about specific groups that we may have been talking to.

But I can say that I have met personally with different investment groups over the last few months, and its been a thorough process and were not quite at the finish line yet.

Discourse over the Suns future has been a popular topic in Boston over the last few years, especially with TD Garden showcasing sell-out crowds during WNBA games in both 2024 and 2025.

If it was up to me, we might relocate here, Connecticut rookie guard Saniya Rivers told The Boston Globes Tara Sullivan before the Suns game against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on July 15.

[Boston is] a great city, has great food, great shops I love to shop.

So just being able to come to the neighboring city and just play here, I think it [does] a lot for womens basketball in general, you know, get some noise around here [and] get people supporting womens basketball.

Hopefully, maybe they can advocate for us to, you know, maybe even relocate.

I love Connecticut, its fine, but I think the marketing here itself is just going to be better for a womens basketball program and I think we can make a lot of noise here starting tonight, so Im just excited to be a part of it.

Rizzotti acknowledged that Boston would be a viable market for a WNBA franchise at some point moving forward.

I cant speak to where the teams going to go, but if Boston was an option, its hard to argue that theyre not a city thats viable for a WNBA franchise, Rizzotti said.

If youre 22, coming out of college and youre considering your brand and considering your opportunities in a major market, I dont think its a slight on playing at Mohegan or in Connecticut.

But Im sure theres a preference that they want to be in a market thats bigger and theyd be able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.

But again, its not the Connecticut Suns decision on relocation.

Thats a board of governors vote, so the only thing that the Mohegan Tribe can do is sell the team.

Even with the Globes report about the Suns potential move to Boston, the WNBA did note in an official statement that individual teams do not have a say in relocation decisions.

Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams, the WNBA told the Boston Globes Gary Washburn about Saturdays report.

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.

According to Washburns report, the purchase of the Sun is worth $325 million, while the Pagliuca-led consortium also plans to allocate another $100 million to build a practice facility in Boston.

TD Garden would be the teams primary home arena, while games could be played in Providence to avoid scheduling issues with the Bruins and Celtics.

Even if news of a sale or relocation have been made official, Rizzotti acknowledged that the future of the franchise in Connecticut has been murky for months as the Mohegan Tribe weighed a sale of the team.

I hope [as a fanbase] we can just stick together, regardless of what the outcome is through all of this, that [theres] appreciation for what our owners are trying to do.

Theyre trying to do whats right by our players, theyre trying to have an understanding and the foresight to know that the league is in a place where a 17,000-20,000 seat arena is probably a standard for the future.

Rizzotti said.

$100 million dollar practice facilities and a location I mean, youre talking to me, being on the coast of Connecticut in the summertime seems pretty good.

But if youre talking to a 22 year old, they want access to shows, opportunities and sporting events in ways that maybe Uncasville cant prepare them for.

But what I will say is those that have played here, the ones Ive talked to over years and years, even when I was playing in the WNBA, they have always appreciated how they got treated here and that I want to always be part of the legacy of this ownership group, regardless of what happens.

Conor Ryan Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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