the sun rose to the occasion in boston
a record-breaking night at TD Garden
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This Week on Out of Your League
The Sun Rose to the Occasion in Boston
On Tuesday night in Boston, the Connecticut Sun faced off against the Los Angeles Sparks in front of a sold out crowd at TD Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins. The venue is nearly twice the size of the Sun’s home court at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
This night was a long time coming and I found myself emotional several times over the course of the game.
I have been covering the Sun since their 2018 season and I covered their 2019 WNBA Finals appearance against the Washington Mystics for both Boston newspapers. The Sun are an interesting market because they both are and are not Boston’s local WNBA team.
As a New England franchise—and without a Boston-specific team in the league—they are Boston’s W team (see: the New England Patriots). But the drive to Uncasville from Boston is just far enough to be inconvenient and until recently, games weren’t aired on the local sports networks and therefore were hard to watch. And Connecticut is its own market when it comes to women’s basketball, as the UConn women’s dynasty brought an audience to the sport and that translates to the W because fans know many of the players from their days in the NCAA and are already invested in the game.
In 2019 when the Sun made the Finals, neither the Boston Herald or the Boston Globe had covered the team all season and neither had plans to send anyone to the games. I reached out to both papers and that was the only reason those games received coverage. I was astonished. A local professional team is playing for the championship and, even then, it wasn’t a high enough bar for a staff writer to be assigned to cover it. I wrote a preview of the series for the Globe and gamers for the Herald—outside of my comfort zone but a great experience that gave me so much respect for the sports writers who write on deadline to file stories after a game.
This week’s sold-out game at the Garden—on a Tuesday night against a team who is last in the league—was just the latest example of what those of us who watch and cover this league have always known: that there is an audience for women’s sports and if you make them accessible, people will watch them.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said, via The Boston Globe. “Women’s basketball… is trending in this direction. I’ve been in Connecticut a long time and to play in front of a fanbase like this, it gave us another level of energy tonight. It’s just exciting to see where basketball has come and being in Connecticut for 11 years and we have a great fanbase there but at the same time seeing the opportunity of what possibly could be.”
It’s worth noting that the success of this game was despite the WNBA’s marketing and not because of it.
As someone in the local market, I only knew about the game because I’m on the Sun’s mailing list. “I think that there could have been a lot more publicity or promo from the top,” DiJonai Carrington said after the game. “Connecticut had announced that we were having this game probably almost a year ago … there was ample time to do what needed to get done.”
The game didn’t even air on a national broadcast. “The game should’ve been on a national television broadcast,” Carrington said. “You shouldn’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic.”
The teams did not disappoint while playing on the big stage—the game came down to the last two minutes of play and Sparks head coach—and former Sun head coach—Curt Miller was ejected from the game. The vibe of the crowd was incredible and the fans never let up on the cheering and support for the entire 40 minutes that the Sun were on the floor. I brought my kids—their first WNBA game—and it was really special to get to share it with them.
My youngest, wearing their brand new Alyssa Thomas jersey, spent most of the game eating popcorn and yelling loudly from our balcony seats, “Let’s go, Alyssa Thomas!!!” and then turning to me to ask if I thought Alyssa Thomas heard them.
It’s the kind of atmosphere and support that the players of the WNBA deserve and have always deserved, and the kind of access that fans deserve, too.
New format looks great! Also, had fun finding myself in the game night photo of the court :) 🔎
Based on AT's comments a few days before the game, I wonder if she will go to a larger media market in free agency. She deserves, and bless the team that manages to snag her.