By Ella Adams.
The plea to get a women’s professional basketball team to Boston is cementing its roots deep within the State House with major assists from Dorchester’s Worrell brothers. On the eve of the second-ever Connecticut Sun game set in Boston, the Fever and its Massachusetts-bred power forward and center Aliyah Boston arrived on Beacon Hill to the cheers of young players, staffers, and lawmakers who packed the hall of the Grand Staircase on Monday.
“What do we have to do to get a team?” House Speaker Ron Mariano asked the crowd in the Great Hall, eliciting cheers. “That’s the next step for us.”
A former South Carolina Gamecock in her third season with the Fever, Boston is a three-time NBA All-Star and 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year. Born in the US Virgin Islands, she is a Worcester Academy alumna who racked up statewide accolades during her time playing basketball in Massachusetts.
“This is going to be the second year in a row that the TD Garden has sold out — sold out. The hardest ticket in town to get, by far, and this is a big sports town, right?” Gov. Healey said on Monday. “It’s because this league and the amazing women who play in it, those who coach, staff, everybody who’s a part of the WNBA, have taken and are taking women’s sports, and with that, women, to new heights.”
Boston’s Monday visit to the State House marked the official dedication of July 14 as “Aliyah Boston Day” in the city, per Councillor Brian Worrell. Healey and House Speaker Ron Mariano also presented the Fever center with congratulatory certificates for her accolades and for inspiring the next generation of girls in sports.
The former Gamecock has additional, fresh ties to the city. The National Women’s Soccer League’s Boston Legacy FC announced on Monday that Boston is an investor in the city’s newest professional sports team.
The 2024 Sun-Los Angeles Sparks game was the first-ever WNBA game at TD Garden and the most-attended game in Sun franchise history, bringing in more than 19,000 fans. The Fever and the Sun went head-to-head for another sold-out showing on Tuesday night — less than a week after the Boston City Council passed Councillor Worrell’s resolution on July 11, expressing support for bringing a WNBA franchise to the city.
The resolution urges the WNBA and any potential ownership group to consider Boston as the next home for a professional women’s basketball team. Worrell said he looks forward to bringing a WNBA team to Boston “as storied a franchise as the Celtics.”
The Sun, which is owned by the Mohegan Tribe, play at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Worrell based his resolution on news that broke in May that the Sun might be sold and on recent reports about WNBA expansion plans. Sun owners hired an investment bank to explore the sale of the franchise, but questions remain as to whether a sale or an expansion would be the best way for Boston to get in on the action.
“If there’s room for expansion, absolutely, we would love to have a team. But if the only route right now is to purchase the Connecticut Sun, then we are encouraging all investor groups to bring that team here to the city of champs,” Worrell told reporters Monday.
“Keep on speaking about it. Keep on advocating [for] it. If we can get into those rooms with those investor groups, or to the commissioner of the league, I think those are the conversations that we need to have to make this a reality,” the District 4 councilor continued.
WNBA revenues have skyrocketed in recent years. The league announced in June that it will hit 18 teams by 2030 by establishing new franchises in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. Until this season, with the introduction of The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA had not expanded since 2008. The Valkyries paid about $50 million for the team’s franchise; the three newest franchises each will reportedly pay about $250 million.
Asked what power the Legislature might have, and what action lawmakers could take to get a WNBA team to the city, Boston Rep. Chris Worrell said they can “write letters, build up some support and make sure the right people are at the tables for conversation.”
Worrell said those conversations are “always happening.”
“When you think of basketball, you think of Boston, 18 banners — why not have a WNBA team in the greatest sports city in the world?”
