Connecticut Sun could be moving to Boston by 2027 [Report]

Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca has agreed to purchase the team from the Mohegan Sun tribe, but the WNBA still has to approve the sale, per the Boston Globe.

The Connecticut Sun could be moving to Boston by 2027, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reported on Saturday afternoon. The Mohegan Sun tribe — the team’s current ownership group — has agreed to sell the team to a group led by Steve Pagliuca, who has been one of the minority owners of the Boston Celtics since 2002.

Pagliuca hoped to purchase the Celtics this past year from fellow owner Wyc Grousbeck, but another ownership group, led by Bill Chisholm, was selected. Now, the longtime Boston sports owner could be bringing women’s basketball to Boston.

Per the Globe, Pagliuca has agreed to pay a record $325 million for the team, and also contribute $100 million for a new practice facility in Boston. That’s the highest price ever paid for a professional women’s sports team. (For reference, Pagliuca and the other Celtics owners purchase the Celtics for $360 million in 2002).

The Sun don’t currently have their own practice facility in Uncasville, Connecticut, where the team is currently based.

The WNBA could block the Sun’s move to Boston

An important note is that the sale still has to be approved by the WNBA and the league’s governor, and according to a Globe source, the WNBA would rather save Boston as a potential expansion city in 2033.

The WNBA released the following statement to the Boston Globe: “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. 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.”

The WNBA is amid major expansion

As it currently stands, there are 13 teams in the WNBA, with the Golden State Valkyries being this year’s expansion team. Next season, the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire will join the league, while Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are all set to get their own teams over the next five years.

The Sun have played two regular season games at TD Garden in Boston — last year against the Los Angeles Sparks and this year against the Indiana Fever — and both games were sold out. Celtics players attended both games.

After last year’s game between the Sparks and the Sun, then-Sun star DiJonai Carrington gushed about the atmosphere.

“It felt great,” Carrington said. “It felt like every game should feel like.”

The Connecticut Sun have long been one of the WNBA’s premier teams, but they are currently in a rebuilding season and have a league-worst 5-21 record.

Pagliuca has reportedly been hoping to bring a WNBA team to Boston for years, something that Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu have both been vocal about. Michael Carter-Williams and Donnie Wahlberg were also previously working to bring a team to Boston, either via sale or WNBA expansion.

The Mohegan Tribe has already informed ticket-holders the team will play in Uncasville for the 2026 season, but this move positions the team for a Boston relocation in 2027, so long as the WNBA approves the transaction.

This story will be updated as more information is available.