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The Sun is owned by the Mohegan Tribe and currently plays at the Mohegan Sun Arena, but the tribe has been exploring a sale and relocation of the franchise. At 3-18, the Sun is currently the worst team in the WNBA.
While it’s unclear which other cities Providence is competing with – Boston seems likely – there is one potential secret weapon in Rhode Island: Bill Daugherty, who co-owns Seven Stars Bakery with his wife, Tracy, is a former NBA executive who was part of the four-person team that wrote the initial business plan for the women’s professional basketball league.
Daugherty was the senior vice president of business development at the NBA at the time, and he worked closely with former NBA commissioner David Stern, current commissioner Adam Silver, and current Big East Conference commissioner Val Ackerman (Ackerman was the first president of the WNBA).
“It was a very interesting and exciting project to work on,” Daugherty wrote to me in an email Sunday.
Daugherty continued: “One meeting that really stands out to me was when it was decided that we would use the name ‘WNBA.’ It was a real risk at the time as most (all?) women’s team sports leagues had failed up to that point. I give David and Adam a lot of credit as they agreed that if the NBA was going to launch a women’s basketball league, we needed to be all-in. That included incorporating our brand – a very bold decision at the time.”
The bigger picture: Daugherty is not involved with the talks to bring the Sun to Rhode Island, but someone from McKee world or Rhode Island Commerce might want to buy him a cup of coffee (he donated to Helena Foulkes in 2021 and 2022, but the guy knows more about the business of professional basketball than anyone in the state).
Bringing the Sun to Rhode Island would be a huge deal – for McKee and the state.
The WNBA is rocketing in popularity because of the emergence of Clark as one of the most famous athletes on the planet, and teams across the league have repeatedly set attendance records when she plays in their arena.
Don’t fall for the trap of comparing this to the soccer team in Pawtucket. While Rhode Island FC has a beautiful new stadium, the USL is not a top-tier soccer league. The WNBA is home to the best women’s basketball players in the world at a moment when women’s basketball has never been more popular.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.
