U.S. Senator warns WNBA amid long Connecticut Sun sale negotiations

At least one lawmaker is warning the WNBA to stay out of negotiations between the Mohegan tribe that owns the Connecticut Sun and potential new ownership groups.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to the WNBA on Monday officially warning the league to stay out of negotiations, and that “any attempts by the WNBA to block efforts to keep the Sun in Connecticut could violate federal antitrust laws,” according to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.

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Blumenthal also said he will “demand investigations and enforcement actions from the appropriate federal authorities if [the WNBA] takes any step to hinder or constrain Connecticut’s negotiations.”

“Any further attempts by the WNBA to use its considerable governance and market power over the Connecticut Sun to limit or dictate negotiations with the state of Connecticut could be a unreasonable restraint of trade and interference with the market that would violate federal antitrust laws,” Blumenthal wrote.

What’s happening with the sale of the Sun?

Blumenthal’s letter is just the latest amid months of back-and-forth between the WNBA and the Mohegan tribe over the future of the Sun franchise.

The ownership group, which took over the Sun in 2003, announced earlier this summer that it was planning to sell the franchise. Pretty quickly, the tribe received two bids for a full franchise sale for a WNBA-record $325 million. The first, from the Celtics ownership group, would relocate them to Boston. The second would move the team to Hartford and keep them in Connecticut.

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The WNBA, however, has shut down both of those deals and instead wants a city that has already gone through the expansion process to have priority. Boston hasn’t submitted an expansion bid in recent years, so it rejected the Celtics owners’ bid.

The WNBA offered to purchase the Sun for $250 million earlier this summer, and then planned to not charge the new buyer an additional relocation fee. That would allow the league to simply hand off the team to one of its preferred expansion cities, which is reportedly Houston.

Last week, though, it was reported that the tribe is now in talks with the state of Connecticut over selling a minority stake of the franchise to keep the team in the state. It’s unclear what valuation that deal would have, but it would reportedly result in a new practice facility being built and the team splitting time between Uncasville and Hartford.

That is what Blumenthal is hoping for — though if the team relocated just a few hours away to Boston, where they frequently hold games each season, New England would still have a franchise despite his erroneous claim in the letter.

“Hartford has already demonstrated the ability to draw fans, notably hosting both the UCONN men’s and women’s basketball games, two of the most successful college basketball programs in the country, as well as NCAA Tournament games,” Blumenthal wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, relocating the team out of Connecticut would leave New England without a WNBA team, and disrupt the stability and growth the Sun have achieved over the years in the state, which has made it the successful franchise that it has become.”

Whether Blumenthal’s letter actually makes a difference here remains to be seen. Clearly, though, the future of the Sun franchise is still very much hanging in the balance.