WNBA chief says no bid from Boston on expansion

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In this Sept. 29, 2019, file photo, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks at a news conference before Game 1 of the 2019 WNBA Finals between the Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics, in Washington. PATRICK SEMANSKY, FILE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Bill Speros

bsperos1@gmail.com

NEW YORK >> WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Monday the WNBA has yet to receive a bid from any group trying to put a franchise in Boston.

Engelbert spoke to a group from the Associated Press Sports Editors at NBA headquarters.

Boston has long been thought to be a prime destination for a WNBA franchise.

The Connecticut Sun sold out a game last year at TD Garden against the LA Sparks and will visit the arena this upcoming season to face Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.

WNBA fever has spread to Boston.

A group led by Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Carter-Williams has reportedly been working on a bid for a potential expansion team. The effort has the backing of Gov. Maura Healey. The WNBA is on track to add expansion teams in San Francisco, Portland, and Toronto starting in the next two years. Cleveland is expected to join the WNBA roster as its 16th team in 2028.

The WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries debut this upcoming season.

The group led by Wahlberg and Williams is called Boston Women’s Basketball Partners. The group would have to go through the formal process to apply for a team and then receive approval by the league’s other owners.

But the Sun remain in opposition to any other WNBA franchise in New England.

“I don’t want another WNBA franchise in Boston,” Mohegan Sun CEO Ray Pineault told Bookies.com in an exclusive interview last fall. “As the league grows, we’re going to continue to see growth. We get Massachusetts and Rhode Island fans who come to our games now. I wouldn’t be a big fan of having a Boston team. I do think we’re going to continue to work in Boston. We want to bring our product to Boston. We want more Massachusetts fans to see the product that we’re putting on the floor. I’m a Celtics fan and I drive up to Massachusetts from Connecticut to go see the Celtics. I want people from Massachusetts to feel the same way about coming to see the Connecticut Sun.”

Neither Engelbert nor WNBA council would go on the record in regard to any territorial hold on New England. Pro leagues traditionally have restrictions when it comes to expansion.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Monday the Sun has a 75-mile “marketing territory” that does not include the Boston market. He added the Sun cannot keep other WNBA teams from marketing within that zone. Nor does it have veto power for a team in Boston.

“Boston is a league market. It is a potential expansion market for the league,” Silver said. “They could choose to vote — as one team could choose to vote — against it. But they don’t have a legal right to oppose it.”

The Sun’s home court in Uncasville, Connecticut, is 105 miles from TD Garden.

Pineault is in favor of the league’s current expansion plans. NBA franchises in Golden State and Portland can help support the league’s growth on the West Coast.

But he believes the number of teams in the New England/New York region to be sufficient.

“There are protections within franchise-protected areas. The League would have to get the franchise owners within those regions to agree to it, but the league is going to continue to expand and grow,” Pineault told bookies.com. “I think that that is the right thing to do. However, they also want to get into other parts of the United States. They’re in the Northeast with us and New York right now, but they’re not really on the West Coast as much. They have the LA Sparks and that’s really it. To expand and bring more people in, bring more regions in, is the right thing for the league to continue to do.”

The Sun has never won a WNBA championship. The Sun has a well-earned reputation for success in the regular season and bittersweet exits in the postseason. It fell to the Minnesota Lynx 3-2 in the WNBA semifinals this past season. They missed on the WNBA Finals by one game in 2020, as well. They made it to the WNBA Finals in 2022 but got aced out by Las Vegas in 4 games. And they fell one win short of a WNBA title 5 years ago.