"Just don't know how to run a league": Analyst goes off on WNBA's Caitlin Clark treatment and Boston's ownership bid snub

2022 WNBA Finals - Game One - Source: Getty
Analyst goes off on WNBA's Caitlin Clark treatment and Boston's ownership bid snub. (Image Source: Getty)

A WNBA analyst lashed out at the league for the handling of Caitlin Clark and the Connecticut Sun situation. On Tuesday, Trenni Casey from NBC Boston appeared as a guest on NBC Sports.

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She criticized the league for how they have handled the entire Connecticut Sun relocation situation. The Sun had a chance to move to Boston, but the league prefers the franchise to be relocated to Houston.

"I think the WNBA is really screwing up here," Casey said. "You have an offer for $325 million plus a $100 million investment in a state-of-the-art practice facily in a major television market and a sports crazy town and you're like ... we are gonna move it to Houston where we already had a team for 11 years."
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She criticized the league for preferring Houston over Boston. She mentioned the failure of the Houston Comets, a team that ceased to exist in 2008. Casey questioned the league's decision to give Houston another chance when they have a tried and tested market like Boston ready for a WNBA franchise.

"I don not understand why the NBA is so adamantly opposed to Steve Pagliuca, I do not know why they are so adamantly opposed to the Boston market. It almost feels like between this and the way they have handled everything with Caitlin Clark that they just don't really know how to run a league," she added.
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Earlier this month, Steve Pagliuca, a minority owner of the Boston Celtics, had offered to buy the Sun and relocate it to Boston at a $325 million price tag. However, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert never presented Pagliuca's bid to the league's board of directors.

Why is Boston not a preference for the next WNBA expansion?

Boston is one of the rare cities with a huge legacy in basketball, thanks to the Celtics and their success in the NBA. However, the city is not a priority for the WNBA's expansion plans in the near future.

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After Steve Pagliuca's bid to purchase the Sun and relocate it to Boston, the league issued a statement mentioning that the teams cannot make decisions about relocating and that the power to do so lies with the league's board of governors.

The league plans to expand to three cities next: Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. They revealed that more than nine cities had submitted bids for expansion, and Boston was not a priority at the moment.

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"No groups from Boston applied for a team at that time and those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston," the league said in a press release in June.

One source told the Boston Globe that the WNBA plans to expand to the Celtics' city in 2033.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.
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