Wetzel: WNBA Gold Fever could harm Sun fans
The Sun Sales Strategy by the WNBA, according to Dan Wetzel de AM850, ignores the positive of the team by Connecticut for two decades.
In 2002, the WNBA I was in trouble, desperate to find almost anyone or any headquarters willing to receive it. Two franchises closed that low season: Miami and Portland. No one loved them. Another, Utah, moved to San Antonio (and later to Las Vegas).
He Orlando Miraclein decline, he also faced dissolution, until an unlikely proprietary group, the Mohegan tribal nation in Connecticut, presented a unique plan. The tribe would take the WNBA to a 9,000 -seat stadium next to its casino in the New England forests.
Mohegan Sun would be the new headquarters of Connecticut Suna team that bears the name of a casino who opted for the unfortunate WNBA. Perhaps, everyone expected, part of the passion for the close female team of Uconn It would move.
During the next two decades, the plan worked, contributing stability to an unstable league (four more closed franchises for 2009). Despite being in the remote city of Uncasville, Connecticut, the team has constantly attracted public, occupying the fifth place in average assistance in 2022.
Good partners. Great fans.
And now, with large amounts of money flooding the sport, the WNBA is returning the favor … doing everything you can to move to Sun as far as possible.
The Mohegan tribe seeks to take advantage of its original purchase. It is a right of the tribe and a good business. The team that initially bought for 10 million dollars has received two offers of 325 million dollars, a record figure for the WNBA.
An offer, from a group led by the former minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Marc Lasry, would maintain the franchise in Connecticut, and the games would move to Hartford, while their stadium in the city center, with capacity for 16,000 people, would undergo a modernization of 145 million dollars.
The other, from a group led by the former minority owner of the Boston Celtics, Steve Pagliuca, would relocate the team to Boston, 105 miles away but at least within the region.
A third offer, whose financial terms have not yet been revealed, has been presented by a group that includes the state of Connecticut, and would make the team play both in Hartford and in Uncasville.
The WNBA, which must approve a sale, has indicated that neither the Pagliuca nor the one of the Ry are acceptable, according to Alexa Philippou de AM850.
Instead, the League has offered to buy the franchise for 250 million dollars before granting it to one of the cities that has already gone through the WNBA expansion application process: Probably Houston.
That would mean that the Mohegan tribe would substantially get less return from their investment while fans would be abandoned to the history of a small market, just as the NBA once had teams in Fort Wayne and Syracuse.
“The WNBA is trying to press the (Mohegan tribe) to accept a minor offer,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat by Connecticut, to AM850 on Tuesday. “Indeed, they are pressing to deter them from doing what they want, which presumably is to keep the team in Connecticut.”
Blumenthal sent a letter to the WNBA last week warning the league to stay out of the negotiations between the tribe and the possible buyers, threatening to initiate an antimonopoopoly investigation if the league “takes a measure to hinder or restrict Connecticut negotiations.”
“The relocation decisions are taken by the Board of Governors of the WNBA and not the individual teams,” said a WNBA spokesman for AM850 in a statement on Thursday.
The NBA Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Wednesday that the League will participate in any relocation decision.
“We went to Mohegan Sun and told them that if they want to sell their team, there is no problem if they have a buyer to play at the Mohegan Sun,” Silver said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In Summit. “Once we talk about moving it to another city, it is a matter of the League. It is not an individual issue of the team. That is the current situation.”
“Boston did not request … an expansion team and, frankly, Hartford did not do it either,” he said.
Silver is right in the need for the League to approve any relocation. However, that argument is meaningless if used to block offers that keep the equipment in Connecticut. Move 69 kilometers (43 miles) from Uncasville to Hartford, an important population center of the state, is much closer and convenient for most fans of the fans Sun.
“I can’t say that I understand why they are so in favor of the team moved,” Blumenthal said.
It seems that it is money. Mainly of new income that arrives at a traditional league that is in full transformation.
First, a group of billionaires, many of whom already have NBA teams and stadiums, saw Caitlin Clark Trust triple from the logo (or, more specifically, they saw how many people tuned to see it forth triple from the logo). Then they realized that, if it was managed well this time, there could be a way to take advantage of female basketball in general.
Thus, without more, the league is booming.
Consider that in October 2023, the owners of the Golden State Warriors paid an expansion fee of 50 million dollars so that the Valkyries They will start playing this season. Only 20 months later, the expansion quota shot at 250 million dollars for the new Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia teams, each destined for a current NBA owner.
WNBA is like a prosperous city of the old west, so deciding what to do with Connecticut can be complicated, if not directly cruel.
The League clearly does not want to know anything about Hartford or Uncasville; Otherwise, it would simply approve the offer led by the Lasry or that of Connecticut. Nor does he want to know anything about Boston’s current offer.
If the League will go to Boston, I would probably prefer the owners current of the Celtics, or even an additional association with the owners separate from the TD Garden (and the Boston Bruins).
A WNBA team that works perfectly with an NBA team, especially one that owns its own stadium, can access ticket holders, corporate sponsors, media, personal and infrastructure infrastructure, as well as ensure optimal dates in the stadium to increase the probability of success and profitability.
Considering the trends, the WNBA must trust that, by the time Boston resolve everything, the League could require between 400 and 500 million dollars for an expansion team. Time runs in favor of the League.
That leaves the WNBA offering as the only option for the Mohegan tribe, being the interest of the League to buy the equipment and sell it for a gain, based on all the speculation around the NBA and the WNBA, to Tillman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and the Toyota Center.
Houston was among the finalists who stayed out of the last expansion round.
Back in Connecticut, in the wanba trail, there are worried politicians and loyal and nervous fans.
“Connecticut is a powerful state in basketball and with a huge hobby,” said Blumenthal.
Once upon a time, and for a long time later, in which Connecticut was the only option of a dejected league, a safe port in the middle of a long storm.
That was then. This is the gold fever.
