The sale of the Connecticut Sun franchise has become a mess.
Is the Women’s National Basketball Association a circus side show or is it a legitimate sports competition? The visual seems to be more story line, more drama and less about athletic competition both on and off the court. The league keeps expanding even and sports media seems to be creating a narrative that more and more money is flowing into the league yet owners claim they are losing money. There are on court maturity issues and apparently off court maturity issues because the league was not happy with the potential sale of the Connecticut Sun franchise to Boston-area investors and threw a snit saying Boston jumped the line to get a team. Boston was not in the expansion process. Leagues do have the right to stop a potential franchise move and there have been many instances where courts have backed up leagues except in the Al Davis suit against the National Football League move than four decades ago when Davis was allowed to move his Oakland Raiders franchise to Los Angeles. Massachusetts political and business leaders want a WNBA franchise in business, after all business is business and all is fair in love and war.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has thrown down the gauntlet and aimed a statement intended to tell WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbart to listen very carefully to her words. “The league has been saying this is a timing issue and Boston needs to wait, and I don’t believe that Boston should wait. We’ve got women players right now, management, staff, and a women’s professional league that would benefit from this. Why people would stand in the way of that, I don’t understand.” Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont wants to keep the team in the state. There seems to be a suitor interested in keeping the team in Connecticut. The battle over the Sun franchise continues.
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