The money has gone to the WNBA’s head.
Interest in the league is exploding and prospective owners are tripping over themselves trying to win the favor of W commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Rather than doing the right thing, however, Engelbert and her NBA overlords are seemingly acting like mob bosses, shaking people down in hopes of stuffing even more cash into their pockets.
Except the pockets of the players, of course. God forbid they should benefit.
Instead, ESPN reported, the W has tried to strongarm the Mohegan Tribe, the Connecticut Sun’s owner, into taking less money so the league can direct the team to its preferred owner and cash in later on a future expansion team.
That isn’t good business. It’s a racket. And the Mohegan Tribe, the Sun and WNBA fans deserve better.
Kudos to the Mohegan Tribe, who have owned the Sun since 2003 but realize a team in Uncasville, Connecticut, cannot keep pace in an era when WNBA teams are spending big on practice facilities and arena upgrades. They began exploring their options last year and came up with what look like two pretty good ones.
The first, from Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca, is for a WNBA-record $325 million with the promise of a $100 million for a practice facility. Pagliuca was expected to move the team to Boston, but it’s at least still in the region and, given the sold-out crowds the Sun drew for games there each of the last two seasons, has an established fan base.
The other, from a group fronted by former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, would have matched Pagliuca’s $325 million offer while moving the team to Hartford, Connecticut. Again, still in the region, just 45 miles from Uncasville.
But the WNBA won’t even consider either of them because they didn’t apply for expansion.
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” the WNBA said in a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports.
“As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration.”
Can you imagine NBA commissioner Adam Silver saying this to, say, the New Orleans Pelicans owners? It’d never happen, because Silver, and every other league commissioner, views franchise owners as partners, not ATMs.
If this is the way the WNBA is going to operate, what is even the point of owning a franchise? Why even have franchises at all? Just have the WNBA own all the teams and be done with it.
The WNBA’s complicated ownership structure used to be necessary for its survival. Now it’s at the root of many of the league’s problems.
The NBA and its owners own 42% of the WNBA, and it’s well known their investment helped keep the WNBA afloat. It is also well known some NBA owners aren’t real happy about that and, now that the W is raking in the cash, want a return on their investment.
Which is fair. Same for the investors who paid $75 million for a 16% stake of the W in 2022.
But their interests should not come before or at the expense of a longtime WNBA team owner’s right to decide what is best for them, their franchise and their fanbase.
The Mohegan tribe have two offers, both of which would give the tribe a massive payout, boost franchise valuations across the WNBA and maintain the Sun’s fanbase. By any metric, that seems like a fantastic deal.
Except NBA owners won’t profit from it. And it prevents the WNBA, and those NBA owners and outside investors, from double-dipping by requiring Pagliuca, Lasry or someone else from paying for an expansion franchise down the road.
It also means the W won’t be returning to Houston anytime soon. (Though why, if the league is so dead-set on that happening, didn’t it award Houston a franchise during its last expansion go-around?)
For years, those who cared about the WNBA hoped deep-pocketed people would see the value in owning a team and investing in the league. Now that they finally are, it’s the league that isn’t.
Prioritizing outside investors over its own owners is a bad way for the WNBA to do business. And it’s going to make prospective owners think twice about wanting to do business with the WNBA.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
