Connecticut Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz learned the impact that playing sports can have firsthand as a young girl, growing up competing in everything from baseball to tennis to swimming.
Those experiences helped foster lifelong confidence and leadership skills in Bysiewicz, so she understands exactly how important sports can be in developing the next generation of female leaders. It’s also why she’s fighting in conjunction with Gov. Ned Lamont to keep the Connecticut Sun in the state.
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The Mohegan Tribe, which has owned the Sun since 2003, spent months exploring a potential sale of the team and currently has two offers on the table — one from a group in Boston led by former Celtics minority governor Steve Pagliuca and another from a Hartford-based group led by former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry. But the WNBA has reportedly told the Tribe its Board of Governors would not approve a move to either Boston or Hartford, leaving the future of the franchise in limbo.
Lamont has vocally supported keeping the team in Connecticut since it was first reported in May that the team was for sale, and Bysiewicz said that effort is ongoing with the process currently at a standstill.
“We’ve been having advocacy conversations to keep them in Connecticut, because we feel very strongly that Connecticut is the college basketball capital of the world, so having the Sun here expands our basketball legacy,” Bysiewicz said Tuesday. “We want to keep them here because I think it just makes our state so much more fun and vibrant. We know also that the team is an economic driver, and so we’d like to keep them here and see them continue to grow audiences and thrive.”
For 23 years the Sun have been a fixture, not just for sports fans, but also for members of the community in southeastern Connecticut. In 2024, the Sun raised nearly $170,000 for local organizations through its foundation, and it holds annual back-to-school shopping events to help provide backpacks, supplies and clothes at the start of the academic year for families in need. The team also hosts regular free clinics around the region through its Sun Academy program to introduce young athletes to basketball and give them an opportunity to learn from professional players and staff members.
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“They’re truly role models for people, for our girls and our young women,” Bysiewicz said. “I have heard from constituents as I’m traveling around the state that they love the Sun, they love going to the games, and they’re hoping that we can keep them here, and I know the governor feels the same. He’s continuing to do what he can as well to advocate for keeping them here.”
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Bysiewicz was born in New Haven and was serving as the Secretary of State under former governor John Rowland when the Mohegan Tribe brought the Sun to the state from Orlando back in 2003. The owners of the NBA’s Orlando Magic would have folded the franchise had the tribe not stepped in to purchase the team, then known as the Orlando Miracle, and Bysiewicz remembers a public skepticism around whether the team could succeed in Uncasville.
But the Sun have thrived since arriving in Connecticut, in part because the success of the UConn women’s basketball program helped create a deep-rooted culture of passion for the sport. The Huskies won their third national championship the year before the Sun arrived, then added two more in the WNBA franchises’ first two years in the state. The Sun have also featured a slew of UConn players over more than two decades in Connecticut: Of the 49 former Huskies alumni who have played in the WNBA, 19 have returned to play for the Sun at some point during their careers, and the 2025 roster includes four UConn alumni.
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That foundational fanbase has grown exponentially over the years, and the Sun are averaging their highest-ever annual attendance in 2025 with 8,720 fans per game up from 8,450 in 2024. The team sold out of season tickets this season for the first time in franchise history, and it also filled more than 19,000 seats for the second straight year when it played a one-off game at Boston’s TD Garden.
“The games are so much fun,” Bysiewicz said. “The Governor and I have been to games together, and we love highlighting them, and so we want to make sure that the people of Connecticut and beyond continue to be able to enjoy the team, because we know they have lots of folks who come from Rhode Island and Massachusetts and our surrounding states to come and and watch.”
Support for Connecticut’s last remaining major professional sports team has continued to grow within state and local government throughout the sale process. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has been a strong advocate for Hartford’s bid to purchase the team, and State Comptroller Sean Scanlon put out a statement Wednesday criticizing the WNBA’s handling of the team’s potential relocation.
“As the CFO of the state, I know that keeping this franchise here in Connecticut isn’t just good for fans of the team in the basketball capital of the world. It’s good for our state and the city of Hartford in particular,” Scanlon said in a video posted to his official X account. “The WNBA and powerful corporate outside interests are blocking this deal, and they’re trying to steal the team from Connecticut against the will of the owners of the team, against the fanbase of Connecticut. The message is to the WNBA and the NBA that controls the WNBA, don’t take our team away.”
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