The Mohegan tribe has made it clear that they are very open to selling the Connecticut Sun. On Tuesday, August 19, ESPN reported that though the tribe has "presented multiple options" to WNBA leadership, a deal that everyone is happy with hasn't been struck yet. And while several compelling options have been presented to the WNBA, the league is most interested in one: buying the team and moving it to a city of its choosing.
On August 7, a league official explained to Front Office Sports that despite the strong interest in bringing the team to Boston, no one from the city has put in a genuine expansion bid. "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," the group explained.
And according to ESPN, the WNBA is still intent on the team moving to a city that's already put in some of the work required to host the Sun in the first place. Additional options presented by the Mohegan tribe include selling the team outright to the Boston group spearheaded by Steve Pagliuca, selling the group to former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry (who has said he would move the team to Hartford, Connecticut), or selling a minority stake in the franchise.
Moving to a WNBA-friendly city would be huge for the Sun
Of all the options presented so far, moving the team to a city that's already prepped to host a WNBA team would be a huge deal for the Sun, a team that has historically dealt with a lack of facilities and support that athletes need. The Sun currently plays in the league's smallest market, and many of the cities and potential ownership groups who have put in expansion bids in the last year can provide both the financial backing and amenities that a WNBA team needs in 2025.
Those cities include Nashville (and potential owners Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Candace Parker), Denver, Miami, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Another team that is likely to be strong contender is Houston, which was home to the Comets (one of the eight original WNBA teams when the league launched in 1996). Houston is an attractive candidate, though it's unclear how moving the Sun to the city would impact the Dallas Wings (if at all).