The Sun Sets in Connecticut
Plus: A European soccer mystery, the plight of the modern MLB umpire, and SWISH!
Here are six sports business items to start the week…
What I Can Explain 🏀: This morning the WNBA formally announced that the Connecticut Sun would be purchased by the owner of the Houston Rockets for about $300 million and moved to Texas. We’ve known this was the league’s preference for months now, despite the outcry from Sun fans and local politicians. But it has drawn new controversy because two different investors well-known to the NBA offered more money to keep the team in the Northeast.
A group led by former Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca wanted to move the franchise to Boston; a group led by former Bucks owner Marc Lasry wanted to move it to Hartford. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D—Conn.) has already called for a DOJ investigation.
There are some pretty clear forces at play here. For one, the prior Celtics owners joined the NBA in 2002 and never participated in any WNBA expansion process (the Rockets did). Plus, the new Celtics owners want a WNBA expansion team in the future. Given all that, the league was never going to okay a Boston team for a different owner. The main arena in Hartford holds 16,000, but it’s not an NBA-style venue, and there are 2x as many people in the Greater Houston area than there are in all of Connecticut.
While I’m not surprised, it has me thinking about the other major U.S. women’s league, which is in the middle of its own relocate-or-expand drama. The NWSL is pushing to sell its next expansion team for $200 million, but the Houston Dash are on the market and would cost significantly less than that. Like the Sun, I know what will happen there—a $200+ million expansion team, and separately, a new Dash owner—but curious to see the reactions when it does.
What I Can’t Explain ⚽: Four teams from Europe will clinch World Cup bids this week in winner-take-all games, and UEFA has scheduled all four to start at the exact same time on Tuesday.
Why??? Play them over the full week, or stagger them over two days. Major U.S. sports would never make this mistake with high profile play-in games...
What Made Me Laugh 🤡: MLB has made a number of major changes in the last few years and has been widely praised for most of them. This year’s shift was the introduction of the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), which allows players to challenge an umpire’s call by reverting to the robots. It’s basically the tennis challenge system for baseball, and it’s also opened to largely positive reviews.
Look at the swagger on Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena, when he was confident his third strike would be retroactively turned into a fourth ball.
And LOL at this take 👇
What I Love 🎶: A few years ago, folks who produce live basketball games decided to put microphones right under the basket to better capture the clang! of the rim and the swish! of the net. Last night’s epic UConn buzzer-beater vs. Duke featured the most perfect swish sound I’ve ever heard. Turn the volume up for this clip from the March Madness X account 👇
BTW, you’ve likely seen that clip, but have you heard the call from the Duke radio broadcast? It’s perfect 👇
Sportico Story of the Week ⛳: I wrote this week about the economics of TGL, the indoor golf league launched two years ago by a group led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. After just two seasons, some teams are cash flow positive in the seven figures, and valuations have begun to top $100 million. Now the group is selling women’s franchises for $20 million. So how did TGL reach metrics that took MLS three decades? Very low overhead and a central venue, among a few other things.
Non-Sportico Story of the Week 🎓: This flew under the radar a little, but SBJ reported last week that the Big Ten is discussing a way to allow its schools to exceed the new revenue-sharing cap—currently $20.5 million—for the specific purpose of re-signing players. Think of it as a college version of the NBA’s Bird Rights.
Details are vague and this would take some convincing, but it’s yet another way that the richest conferences are starting to push their financial heft to incrementally gap off poorer schools. Many programs outside the Big Ten and SEC are already strained at the $20.5 million number.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.