On Dec. 30, 2002, Mitchell Etess had his first meeting with the WNBA about moving the Orlando Miracle to Connecticut. Less than a month later, Etess, then the executive vice president of marketing at the Mohegan Sun,

A record deal to an ownership group would seemingly be a coup for the WNBA — the last WNBA team to have a standalone majority sale was the Atlanta Dream in 2021 for less than $10 million — but the Sun relocating under Pagliuca’s watch appears to be facing some resistance.

The Connecticut group seeking to keep the Sun in the state is led by Marc Lasry, a billionaire investor who formerly owned the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, with additional support from the local corporate community.