The potential sale of the Connecticut Sun women’s basketball team is still pending, the team’s owner said during its quarterly earnings call Thursday morning.
“I know there’s a lot of speculation going on,” Mohegan CEO Raymond Pineault told investors. “I can confirm … the Connecticut Sun has not been sold.”
A Boston-based group and several Connecticut investors have proffered competing eight-figure bids for the team, but according to recent reports, the WNBA — which has final say over the deal — prefers to move the team elsewhere.
Since 2003, the Connecticut Sun has been owned by Mohegan Sun, a subsidiary of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. The team is Connecticut’s only major league professional sports team and the potential sale has evoked strong lobbying efforts to keep the team in-state.
During Thursday’s earnings call, Mohegan confirmed that no decision has been made on the sale.
“To address recent media coverage related to the future of our ownership of the Connecticut Sun, we are currently exploring strategic initiatives, but it’s not possible to predict the outcome or timing of the review,” Pineault said.
He said Mohegan Sun is “committed to the team’s success” and is “looking at all options that are in the best interest of the Connecticut Sun, Mohegan Sun and the WNBA.”
“And we cannot comment further at this time,” he concluded.
Earlier this year, Mohegan Sun announced that it had hired an investment bank to explore selling the franchise.
The Boston Globe first reported on Saturday that a group led by Steve Pagliuca, minority owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, had reached a deal to buy the Connecticut Sun for $325 million and relocate the team to Boston. In addition, he pledged another $100 million for a new practice facility in Boston.
Connecticut fired back with its own proposal to move the team to Hartford. An investment group led by Marc Lasry, who grew up in West Hartford and is a former owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, made an offer that also topped $300 million and would include building a practice facility for the team, the Hartford Courant reported.
On Tuesday, the Sports Business Journal reported that the WNBA’s Board of Governors would “almost certainly, as of now, vote against a relocation to either city.”
That’s because neither city applied for a franchise in the most recent expansion round, the SBJ said.
Instead, the league would likely prefer a team that recently applied for, but lost out on an expansion bid — Houston, Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville and St. Louis.
The sports journal reported that Houston would likely be the frontrunner.
However, Gov. Ned Lamont said he will talk to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who also oversees the WNBA, to continue his lobbying effort to keep the team in Connecticut, according to reports.
Mohegan Sun has said the team will continue to play at the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena in Montville through the 2026 season.
