During a Q&A session with season ticket holders a few weeks before the start of the 2024 WNBA season, Connecticut Line president Jennifer Lizzotti He was already answering questions about the team’s first game, which will be held in August at Boston’s iconic TD Garden.
In April, a concerned fan took to the mic and asked Rizzotti: Does the Boston game mean the Suns are considering moving the team from Connecticut? Her answer was an unequivocal “no,” and three months later, that hasn’t changed. Sun prepares for Los Angeles Sparks home game In front of over 19,000 fans on Tuesday night.
“That wasn’t part of the reason we were playing (in Boston). People like to talk about it, but the Mohegan Tribe has supported this team for 23 years,” Rizzotti said before Tuesday’s game. “They’ve put their heart and soul into it. They’ve invested in it, and now they’re finally at a point where they can see the value of all that investment. It’s proud to know that they want to continue to work hard and have a successful franchise and want to make it happen at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut.”
“It’s refreshing to know that they support us doing this because they know it can be a conversation. They’re stable enough… to allow us to expand into other markets in New England. And even though we want to be known as a New England team, we’re still a Connecticut Sun.”
Rizzotti has had her roots in Connecticut basketball for most of her life. She led New Fairfield High School. Consecutive state championships In 1991 and 1992, she helped UConn win its first national championship as a junior in 1995. She was Big East Player of the Year and First-Team All-American her senior season with the Huskies, and she made her professional debut. New England Blizzard in Hartford After graduating in 1996, she played in the now-defunct American Basketball League. Before retiring from the WNBA in 2003, Rizzotti remained in her hometown during the offseason, coaching women’s basketball at the University of Hartford from 1999-2016. She has served as president of the Sun since 2020.
The Sun was founded in 1998 as the Orlando Miracle, but the franchise was acquired by the Mohegan Tribe and relocated to Connecticut in 2002 in hopes of capitalizing on the state’s women’s basketball boom, fueled by UConn’s dominance. Today, the Sun is the third-winningest franchise in WNBA history and has ranked in the top half of the league in home attendance in four of the last five seasons (excluding the 2020 season, which was played in the bubble). Rizzotti sees the sellouts at TD Garden, which has nearly three times the capacity of Mohegan Sun Arena, as another indication of how much potential the Sun still has.
“I’ve been there enough to know that there’s a craze and a buzz in Connecticut,” Rizzotti said. “I’ve been there as a player and as a coach, so I’m one of the lucky ones who knows how people can fall in love with the game. … Connecticut has been a great home for us, but we wanted to make it accessible to all of New England. … We wanted to bring it in and make it more accessible to the girls and boys who grew up crazy about the WNBA. I think we’re creating a fan base that’s going to realize that Mohegan Sun isn’t that far away and that it’s worth driving to see these ladies in person.”
But despite those victories and Rizzotti’s commitment to the Sun’s home stadium in Connecticut, she also knows the franchise risks falling behind the rest of the league off the court. The Phoenix Mercury became the third team in the WNBA to open a dedicated practice facility. $100 million project during All-Star weekendAnd the Chicago Sky announced plans to complete it in July. Build your own facility by December 2025.
Meanwhile, Connecticut currently splits its practice time between the arena and the Mohegan Tribe’s community center in Uncasville, and the team must occasionally split gym space between workout classes or pickup games. The Sun already operates in the WNBA’s smallest market, putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting top talent, and superstar Alyssa Thomas, who is set to become a free agent in 2025, has stressed the need for a state-of-the-art facility. The league is growing exponentially.
“Playing Team USAAnd being around other players in other markets… Connecticut is way behind in that regard,” Thomas said. “I’ve been here 11 years, and sure, we’ve made changes, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement in a lot of areas… I mean, we need our own practice facility and things like that, because now is the time. People want to come to the city and stay and train there, but not a lot of people want to stay in Connecticut and not have a facility where they can train year-round in that regard. So I’m excited for Boston. Yeah, Connecticut has been our home, but we just want to continue to grow our fan base and Boston is the next step.”
Rizzotti is confident that increased investment in the Suns (especially in practice facilities) will come sooner rather than later. The WNBA recently concluded an 11-year, $2 billion media rights deal that will skyrocket the value of all teams, and experts say it is even a dramatic increase from previous deals. Underestimate the potential of the league.
“It’s 100 percent possible in the near future,” Rizzotti said. “TV deals, expansions, everything that’s going on in the league right now… those are driving conversations at every team about better facilities. They’re driving conversations about lengthening the season, bringing in more players in the offseason than we used to. So the conversation right now is, we need to have these facilities for our players. And we want these facilities. We want to be a destination that players want to come to, and we want to keep our value high. That’s where we’re starting to change gears, and (owners) are starting to realize the importance of these things.”
