Wyc Grousbeck says ‘there’s some discussions underway’ a few WNBA group coming to Boston

Celtics

The WNBA lately grew to the Bay Space and is trying to find a location for a second growth group.

5 WNBA groups share possession with native NBA organizations. Auerbach Middle

  • ‘He’s simply growing as a participant day by day’: Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla impressed by Payton Pritchard’s progress

  • Kevin Garnett involved about Celtics’ depth, thinks they could possibly be emulating Nuggets with Kristaps Porzingis transfer

Celtics proprietor Wyc Grousbeck says Boston may land a WNBA growth group sooner or later.

Following the information of the Bay Space being awarded a ‘Golden State’ ladies’s group earlier this month, Grousbeck mentioned the thought of Boston being the following metropolis to land a squad with Axios BFD on Thursday.

“There’s some discussions underway,” Grousbeck, the Celtics’ proprietor since 2002, stated. “Keep tuned, however I’m undecided. I’ve heard some rumblings.”

The Golden State WNBA group’s announcement got here with the information that discussions surrounding a second growth membership would proceed. ESPN says Portland would ‘seemingly’ be the following location, however nothing is ready in stone but. Each the Bay Space’s group and the following growth group would start competitors in 2025.

A Boston WNBA group may turn out to be the Celtics’ “sister group”, which means that Grousbeck and Co. can be the growth franchise’s holder in the event that they see match. 5 WNBA groups have shared possession with their respective native NBA groups within the Indiana Fever (Indiana Pacers), New York Liberty (Brooklyn Nets), Washington Mystics (Washington Wizards), Phoenix Mercury (Phoenix Suns), and Minnesota Lynx (Minnesota Timberwolves).

One impediment in Grousbeck buying possession can be the place the WNBA group performs. Celtics possession doesn’t personal the TD Backyard.

“I’ve been open to all of it alongside, besides that it simply doesn’t work out as properly in case you don’t personal the constructing,” Grousbeck stated.

Don and Paul Gaston, who managed the Celtics group previous to promoting the group to Grousbeck, had no real interest in proudly owning a WNBA group when the league started within the Nineties, in accordance with former NBA commissioner David Stern in 2019.

“There was little or no enthusiasm by possession at the moment for a WNBA group in Boston,” Stern informed The Athletic’s Steve Buckley. “They weren’t .”

Val Ackerman, previously the NBA’s vp of enterprise affairs within the ’90s, bluntly defined why a ladies’s squad in Boston didn’t occur.

“(The Celtics) didn’t wish to make investments as a result of that they had an excessive amount of occurring on the lads’s aspect,” Val Ackerman, the NBA’s former vp of enterprise affairs, stated. “They needed to dedicate their energies there, which is comprehensible.”

Stern, nonetheless, believed a Boston-based WNBA group would achieve success.

“Positive,” he stated. “Completely … in fact, it might be nice.”

Contemplating the Celtics’ 17 championship trophies and perennial championship competition, Boston is properly overdue in establishing a WNBA squad. A New England skilled ladies’s basketball rivalry may brew given the Connecticut Solar’s shut proximity to the massive metropolis.