BOSTON— By the time TD Garden opened its doors Tuesday to fans a little after 6 p.m., — two hours before the Connecticut Sun and Indiana Fever would tip off — the line to get in for the WNBA's second-ever game in Boston had stretched nearly to the corner of Causeway St. and Lomasney Way.
The WNBA sold out the Garden for the second straight year, and the matchup delivered again with a back-and-forth, 85-77 Fever victory. And for the second straight year, players and fans alike weren't shy in showing they want women's basketball in the city for good.
"I don't really know how often my teammates watch NBA, but I'm a historian buff," said Sun center Tina Charles, a 15-year WNBA veteran. "Just to see the banners up, just knowing the NBA players who were able to grace this floor, just the history here, I'm very thankful that I was able to have this opportunity this late in my career. ... It was a success — even though we didn't get the win — but everything else to hopefully have a team here."
This wasn't just the Caitlin Clark effect, though her Fever jerseys and merch dominated fan apparel in the audience. Last August the Sun sold out the Garden playing a struggling Los Angeles Sparks team. The two games are two of the three largest turnouts in franchise history. Now, with rumors swirling of the Sun potentially relocating and the WNBA's expansion boom, the logical next question becomes: should Boston get a franchise?
CLARK MANIA: Fans reacted to the superstar's first appearance in Boston
"Absolutely," Aliyah Boston said. "I think when you look at the atmosphere of the Celtics, if you look at the atmosphere for the TD Garden games that we've had — it's been sold out, the energy's been great, the atmosphere's been great, and I think that's what it would stay all the time."
As three-time WNBA All-Star in three professional seasons, Boston has become one of the faces of women's basketball for the city with whom she shares a name. Though she grew up in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Boston lived with her aunt in Worcester as a teenager, starring at Worcester Academy and becoming a five-star high school prospect while in NEPSAC. On Monday, the city designated July 14 as Aliyah Boston Day, and Boston also announced she would be joining the investment group for the Boston Legacy NWSL franchise. She's confident the WNBA popularity will translate to her nearby soccer team.
"I don't even have to question it. They're gonna be there, I know it," Boston said.
One of the most compelling pitches for a Boston team (and a Sun relocation) is that TD Garden dwarfs the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., with a 10,000-seat capacity. The Sun, currently owned by the Mohegan Tribe, practice in the tribe's Community and Government Center, which has drawn criticism in the past for not feeling fit to house a professional team.
Former Connecticut Sun players like Alyssa Thomas and DiJonai Carrington were thinly veiled in their opinions about the contrast in atmosphere following last year's game. This year, rookie Saniyah Rivers voiced similar views.
"Listen, if it was up to me, we might relocate here," Rivers said before the game. "I love Connecticut. It's fine, but I think the marketing here itself is just going to be better for a women's basketball program.”
Sportico reported in May that the Sun were considering a sale and possible relocation. Tangentially, Massachusetts governor Maura Healey wants a WNBA team in Boston, and Boston Women's Basketball Partners (a group led by Michael Carter-Williams and Donnie Wahlberg) is trying to make it happen.
HOOP QUEENS: Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti’s lifelong basketball legacy in Connecticut
Everything seems to align in theory — but right now, not reality. Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reported two weeks ago that the Mohegan Tribe would want to keep the Sun in Connecticut if sold. Boston could get a team by applying through continued expansion, but with teams already mapped out through 2030, they'd be in a long line (if even accepted).
Meanwhile, the Sun have been looking around New England. NBC 10 WJAR reported that Joe Pagliuca, son of Celtics limited partner Steve Pagliuca, is a lead candidate to purchase the team. The station also reported that a potential buyer toured Providence and the Amica Mutual Pavilion last Friday to gauge the city's potential.
Among the six current and planned expansion teams — the Golden State Valkyries, Toronto Tempo, Portland Fire, and unnamed Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — five (not Toronto) plan to play in the same arena as their NBA counterparts. Boston would fit this trend, but any new ownership group would need to work with TD Garden, owned by Delaware North (and Bruins CEO Jeremy Jacobs) on using the arena.
The AMP might be easier to use logistically, and with a 14,000-seat capacity, it would hold up as a middle-tier venue relative to the rest of the WNBA. But would Providence be a destination city?
Ryan Giammarco (a Providence resident) and his father, Mike (a New Bedford, Mass., resident) were among a strong contingent of Sun fans at Tuesday's game. Ryan has followed the team since before the pandemic and is a second-year season ticket holder who attended every home game last season. A team in Boston or Providence would be accessible to both of them because they could hop on the Providence or new South Coast MBTA commuter rail lines.
"If they go to Hartford, I probably can't go to games anymore," Ryan said. "But if they come to Boston, or if they move to Providence, obviously I can go to those games. So that's where I would personally want them to go. I think there's too much basketball history in Connecticut. ... it's too much of a good basketball market to leave it, so I just think leave it right where it is."
Mike also cautioned that rapid expansion without a long-term plan has proven dangerous in the past.
"I remember the first time that they were popular when the league first started, they expanded too quickly and almost destroyed the league," he said. "So the way they're doing it, one team at a time, one year at a time, they seem to have a really good plan in place."
Father-daughter duo Bill and Olivia Avery also attended the game. They're from Lisbon, Conn., and are well-versed in UConn women's basketball and the Sun. Both have resigned themselves to the likelihood of relocation, though they want the team to stay in Connecticut.
"They're redoing the People's Bank Arena at Hartford. It's gonna be really nice — maybe they might move to Hartford," Bill said.
Olivia, 22, says most friends her age know the WNBA for Paige Bueckers (now on the Dallas Wings). But she's more impressed by the amount of young girls who attend Sun games.
"I want them to stay in Connecticut, because for young girls it inspires them and shows them they can be somebody (like that) when they grow up."
The bottom line: a Boston WNBA franchise would make obvious sense given the major market, professional arena and proven interest. But how quickly could the details align, and would it cost a team in one of women's basketball's most tradition-steeped (albeit smaller) states?
For now, it remains a waiting game.
