WNBA has outgrown Conn. casino, Sun should move to Boston | Matt Vautour
January 29, 2025 should be the tipping point that makes the league realize it’s time.
The WNBA has gotten too big for Uncasville, Connecticut.
Alyssa Thomas, the Connecticut Sun’s cornerstone and one of the best players in the league, departed via a sign-and-trade with Phoenix. She’s the latest star to push her way out of a franchise that can’t hold onto star players.
Back when the league was a hopeful enterprise that the NBA could also use as a tax write-off, playing at Mohegan Sun Casino was a good idea. Fans could come root for the team, have dinner and spend a couple of bucks on the gaming floor. Each fan had the potential to be three customers.
It also put a team in Connecticut, the home of some of the greatest women’s basketball fans in the country. UConn and its abundant supporters were on board for the women’s game decades before the rest of the world caught up. Not all of them embraced the Sun, but it certainly gave the franchise a head start.
But there’s a reason the NBA doesn’t have teams in Ft. Wayne and Syracuse anymore. The WNBA has outgrown Uncasville.