{"id":812,"date":"2025-08-03T13:56:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:10:17","slug":"mohegan-selling-wnba-connecticut-sun-to-executive-linked-to-inspire-casino-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/03\/mohegan-selling-wnba-connecticut-sun-to-executive-linked-to-inspire-casino-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohegan Selling WNBA Connecticut Sun to Executive Linked to Inspire Casino Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Mohegan is selling the WNBA Connecticut Sun for $325 million<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The buyer is a top executive at Bain Capital<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bain Capital helped Mohegan build Inspire in South Korea<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Mohegan Tribe has found a buyer for its Women&#8217;s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team that it has owned for more than two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_359029\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-359029\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-359029 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Mohegan Connecticut Sun WNBA Steve Pagliuca\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1401241762-4x3-1-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>The WNBA Connecticut Sun are pictured in 2022. The team owned by the Mohegan Tribe since 2003 is reportedly being sold and relocated to Boston. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Steve Pagliuca, of Bain Capital fame and riches, who is a minority owner of the NBA&#8217;s Boston Celtics, has reportedly reached a deal with the Mohegan Tribe to acquire the Connecticut Sun for $325 million. If approved by WNBA owners and the WNBA Board of Governors, the transaction would be the highest ever for a professional women&#8217;s sports team.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pagliuca plans to relocate the Sun from the Connecticut tribe&#8217;s casino resort destination in Uncasville to Boston. While team owners will need to approve Pagliuca becoming an owner, the league&#8217;s Board of Governors must vote in favor of the franchise&#8217;s relocation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Boston makes sense for the WNBA, as the Massachusetts capital is sports-obsessed with the Celtics, NFL New England Patriots, MLB Boston Red Sox, NHL Boston Bruins, and MLS New England Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If the deal goes through, Pagliuca would invest $100 million in a WNBA practice facility. The WNBA Boston team would play its home games at TD Garden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Sun played two sold-out games at the Celtics&#8217; court over the past two years. The Sun&#8217;s TD Garden sellout last month was against the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark, the sport&#8217;s most popular player.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Sun Fire Sale<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In May, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mohegan-tribe-reportedly-shopping-wnba-connecticut-sun-franchise\/\"><i>Casino.org <\/i>reported<\/a> that the Mohegan Tribe was shopping its WNBA team to raise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mohegan-gaming-credit-profile-weakening-says-analyst\/\">capital<\/a>. While the federally recognized tribe has experienced decades of success in the tribal and commercial gaming industries throughout North America, its recent multibillion-dollar bet on South Korea was a major bust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Mohegan defaulted on a $275 million loan tied to its Inspire Entertainment Resort development at Incheon International Airport. The lender &#8212; Pagliuca&#8217;s Bain &#8212; took possession of the casino resort in February.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Bain Capital is reportedly not tied to the Connecticut Sun transaction. Pagliuca is said to be purchasing the WNBA franchise on his own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was no secret that Mohegan was looking to quickly offload the Sun. The tribe still managed to field an unprecedented offer for a WNBA organization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">According to <i>Sportico<\/i>, the Las Vegas Aces is the highest-valued WNBA team at $140 million. But because of the so-called &#8220;Caitlin Clark effect,&#8221; and interest in the women&#8217;s hoops league at an all-time high, savvy investors like Pagliuca are speculating that there&#8217;s further growth ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>WNBA Expansion<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the coming years, the WNBA will expand with new teams in Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030). Owners behind those three expansion teams paid the WNBA a one-time $250 million fee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The WNBA&#8217;s recent growth has been astronomical.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In 2021, an investment group led by Larry Gottesdiener bought the Atlanta Dream for less than $10 million. Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis reportedly paid $2 million for the WNBA Las Vegas Aces that same year from MGM Resorts. Tom Brady has since bought a minority stake in the Aces.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mohegan paid $10 million for the Sun in 2003 after the owners of the NBA Orlando Magic opted to cease running the WNBA Orlando Miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mohegan-selling-wnba-connecticut-sun\/\">Mohegan Selling WNBA Connecticut Sun to Executive Linked to Inspire Casino Disaster<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mohegan is selling the WNBA Connecticut Sun for $325 million The buyer is a top executive at Bain Capital Bain Capital helped Mohegan build Inspire in South Korea The Mohegan Tribe has found a buyer for its Women&#8217;s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team that it has owned for more than two decades. The WNBA Connecticut Sun are pictured in 2022. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}