Celebrity-Led Group Striving To Deliver WNBA Franchise To Boston

New England could soon welcome its second WNBA franchise, this time in Boston, as a few Massachusetts-born celebrities team up to bring the idea to life.

Actor Donnie Wahlberg and ex-NBA guard Michael Carter-Williams are leading a group of investors striving to bring a WNBA team to Boston, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Wahlberg, a Dorchester native, and Williams, a Hamilton native and former NBA guard of nine seasons, are working alongside Boston Women’s Basketball Partners — the investor’s group — pushing to make Beantown the latest destination for the ongoing trend of WNBA expansion.

Franchises in Cleveland, Golden State, Portland and Toronto are expected to increase the league’s team total from 12 to 16 by 2028, per ESPN. Efforts from Wahlberg and Williams are getting Boston into the conversation, too.

“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 Boston 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.”

WNBA fans in Boston currently have to make the two-hour-long drive to watch the closest professional women’s basketball team, the Connecticut Sun. And even their franchise has undergone a brutal setback since reaching the 2022 WNBA Finals, parting ways with all five of its starters from last season — DeWanna Bonner, Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, DiJonai Carrington and Ty Harris — amid a tough rebuild.

“As the city of champions, Boston is the hub for sports fans, and we would be delighted to host a trailblazing WNBA team,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said, per Washburn. “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.”