Donnie Wahlberg-led group is preparing offer for Boston WNBA expansion team

From a new article from Boston.com

Report: Donnie Wahlberg-led group is preparing offer for Boston WNBA expansion team

Wahlberg and ex-NBA player Michael Carter Williams are attempting to bring the WNBA to Boston

A group of investors led by Massachusetts natives Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Carter-Williams are preparing a bid to bring a WNBA expansion team to Boston, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.

Wahlberg, a Dorchester native, rose to fame in the 1980’s as a member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Carter-Williams, who is from Hamilton, played nine seasons in the NBA.

The group is called Boston Women’s Basketball Partners. The push for a new team in Boston comes during a period of significant expansion for the league. There were 12 teams in the WNBA last season. With the additions of teams in San Francisco, Portland, Toronto, and Cleveland, the league is expected to be at 16 teams by 2028.

Boston has enjoyed a long and storied basketball history with the Celtics, who have an NBA-record 18 championships. If this bid is successful, it would be the first WNBA team in Boston.

“As a longtime Boston Celtics fan who attended countless NBA games in my lifetime, nothing would bring me more joy than to have a WNBA franchise in the city of Boston,” Wahlberg told the Globe. “I look forward to the day I can walk into the Garden, along with thousands of the greatest (and most knowledgeable) basketball fans on the planet, to root for Boston’s hometown WNBA team.”

The WNBA has been in nearby Connecticut since 2003, with the Connecticut Sun playing at Mohegan Sun arena inside the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey have offered support for the idea of binging a WNBA team to Boston, according to the Globe.

“As the city of champions, Boston is the hub for sports fans, and we would be delighted to host a trailblazing WNBA team,” Mayor Wu said in a statement to the Globe. “The introduction of a women’s team would expand opportunities for young basketball players in our city and we look forward to learning more about what we could accomplish together.”

If the bid is accepted, Boston Women’s Basketball Partners would have to apply for a team, be approved by league owners, and pay an expansion fee. Cleveland reportedly paid a league-record $250 million expansion fee, which is double the $125 million Portland paid in 2024.

The Sun played a sold-out game in Boston against the LA Sparks last summer at TD Garden. The Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever are scheduled to play the Sun at the Garden this August.

The WNBA began in 1997 with eight teams. Three of the eight, the New York Liberty, LA Sparks, and Phoenix Mercury, are still active. The league has seen teams fold and new ones rise over the years.

Now, it appears, the league is ready to grow, and Boston is vying for a piece of the action.