Celtics owner makes offer to purchase the WNBA's Connecticut Sun
According to reports, Pagliuca and his group made an offer to purchase the Connecticut Sun for $325 million.
"The sale price would be the highest ever for a professional women's sports franchise," said Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
Pagliuca's goal in the purchase is said to transition the Sun franchise from Uncasville, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts. This will be the second time the Sun franchise will be relocating. They moved from Orlando, Florida, in 2003.
The Sun has yet to win a WNBA championship, but has reached the WNBA Finals four times in its existence, with its last being in 2022.
Currently, the Sun is in a rebuilding process with new head coach Rachid Meziane. The team is currently in last place in the WNBA with a 5-21 record.
The franchise's current venue, Mohegan Sun Arena, is one of the WNBA's smallest arenas, and the franchise doesn't have a dedicated practice facility for the team.
The sale is still in its early stages and would need approval from the WNBA and league governors. A point of conflict has emerged, as the league still has plans to save Boston as a potential expansion city for a team in 2033.
"The Sun sent a letter to season ticket-holders, ensuring the club will play at Mohegan Sun Arena in the 2026 season. The Boston group is targeting a 2027 move and would potentially play early season games in Providence to avoid any conflict with Bruins and Celtics playoff games," Gary Washburn wrote in his article detailing the bid. "The WNBA has yet to comment on the potential sale."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Got $1,000 to Invest in August? These High-Yielding Dividend Stocks Could Turn It Into Nearly $60 of Annual Passive Income.
Key Points EPR Properties pays a monthly dividend yielding over 6%. Vici Properties' payout yields more than 5%. The REITs expect to continue increasing their dividend payments. 10 stocks we like better than EPR Properties › Investing in high-yield dividend stocks is a great way to generate passive income. For example, investing $1,000 in the following companies could yield nearly $60 of annual dividend income: Dividend Stock Amount Invested Recent Yield Annual Dividend Income EPR Properties (NYSE: EPR) $500 6.42% $32.10 Vici Properties (NYSE: VICI) $500 5.29% $26.45 Total $1,000 5.85% $58.55 Data sources: Google Finance and author's calculations. Dividend yields are as of July 31. Here's a closer look at these high-quality, high-yielding dividend stocks. EPR Properties EPR Properties is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on experiential real estate. The company owns a diversified portfolio of movie theaters, eat-and-play venues, health and fitness properties, attractions, and other entertainment spaces. It leases these properties back to operating tenants, primarily under long-term, triple net leases (NNNs). Those leases provide it with very stable cash flow because tenants cover all property operating costs (including routine maintenance, real estate taxes, and building insurance). The REIT expects its stable portfolio to generate $5 to $5.16 per share of funds from operations (FFO) as adjusted this year. That easily covers its monthly dividend payment of $0.295 per share, or $3.54 annually. It also provides a cushion and surplus cash to invest in more experiential properties. EPR Properties invested $86.3 million into new properties in the first half of this year. Recent investments included acquiring land for $1.2 million and providing $5.9 million in mortgage financing secured by improvements at a health and wellness property in Georgia. It also acquired land for a new eat-and-play property development in Virginia for $1.6 million, which has an expected total cost of $19 million and an anticipated completion in 2026. The company plans to invest $200 million to $300 million in new properties this year. This includes $106 million for experiential development and redevelopment projects it plans to fund over the next 18 months. These investments should grow EPR's FFO and dividend. The REIT raised its payout by 3.5% earlier this year. Vici Properties Fellow REIT Vici Properties also invests in experiential real estate. However, its primary focus is on market-leading gaming, hospitality, wellness, entertainment, and leisure destinations. For example, it owns several iconic casinos along the Las Vegas Strip, including Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand, and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The REIT also leases its properties under long-term NNN contracts with operating tenants. These leases currently have a weighted average remaining term of over 40 years. A growing subset of its leases -- 42% this year, rising to 90% by 2035 -- link rents to inflation. Its strategy of investing in large properties with long-term, inflation-linked leases provides it with stable and rising rental income. Vici Properties currently pays out $0.4325 per share each quarter in dividends, for a total of $1.73 annually. It produces plenty of cash to cover that payment level -- $2.35 to $2.37 per share of adjusted FFO is expected this year. The REIT uses the cash it retains to invest in additional experiential properties. The company has secured two notable new investments this year. It has agreed to provide a loan of up to $510 million to fund the development of the North Fork Mono Casino & Resort in California. Additionally, Vici has committed to investing $450 million into a mezzanine loan related to the development of One Beverly Hills, a landmark luxury mixed-use development in California. Vici's new investments help drive growth in both its FFO per share and its dividend. The REIT has raised its payment for seven straight years (each year since its formation). It has grown the payout at a 7.4% compound annual rate during that period, outpacing the 2.3% average of other REITs focused on properties secured by NNNs. Excellent ways to generate passive dividend income EPR Properties and Vici Properties own diversified and growing portfolios of experiential real estate. Those properties provide them with rising streams of rental income to pay dividends and invest in additional properties. That makes them great ways to turn $1,000 into a growing stream of passive dividend income this August. Should you invest $1,000 in EPR Properties right now? Before you buy stock in EPR Properties, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and EPR Properties wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $624,823!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,820!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,019% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Matt DiLallo has positions in EPR Properties and Vici Properties. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends EPR Properties. The Motley Fool recommends Vici Properties. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Got $1,000 to Invest in August? These High-Yielding Dividend Stocks Could Turn It Into Nearly $60 of Annual Passive Income. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tim Cook reportedly tells employees Apple ‘must' win in AI
Apple CEO Tim Cook held an hourlong all-hands meeting in which he told employees that the company needs to win in AI, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The meeting came after an earnings call in which Cook told investors and analysts that Apple would 'significantly' increase its AI investments. It seems he had a similar message for Apple employees, reportedly telling them, 'Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab.' Despite launching a variety of AI-powered features in the past year under the Apple Intelligence umbrella, the company's promised upgrades to its voice assistant Siri have been significantly delayed. And Cook seemed to acknowledge that the company has fallen behind its competitors. 'We've rarely been first,' he reportedly said. 'There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod.' But in his telling, that didn't stop Apple from inventing the 'modern' versions of those products. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
It's Miller time at Bellflower High
If you're looking for a football team that almost certainly will be improved over last season, Bellflower High fits the profile. The Buccaneers went 0-10. Amir Neal was a starter and never quit. His mom kept telling him, "It's going to get better, it's going to get better." And it has with the hiring of first-year coach Keith Miller, who has brought along his 14-year-old freshman son, Austin, who's 6 feet 5. "We're going to compete for championships and scholarships," Miller vowed at a media day on Saturday. Miller was an assistant at Bellflower when his brother, Jason, was head coach. His daughter plays flag football at Bellflower, so the Millers figure to be influential in the sports programs. Having Austin around should help. He's a receiver who's still growing. New quarterback Elacion Saxton will try to use Miller's size and athleticism for big plays. Austin was asked if during a car ride his father treats him differently depending on his performance. "There's no difference whether there's a good game or bad game," he said. "My dad still loves me." After a follow-up question, Austin finally admitted a good game gets him a stop at Chipotle. Let's see how many stops he gets this season. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
