The Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team co-owned by outgoing Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, is about to be sold, the league confirmed to CBS News Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the potential sale.
“As for the Atlanta Dream, we understand that a sale of the franchise is nearing completion,” a WNBA spokesperson told CBS News. “Additional information will be provided once the sales negotiation is completed.”
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The news of a possible deal comes the same day Loeffler, a Republican, is finishing her term as a senator.
The WNBA and the Dream made headlines with their league-wide support of Black Lives Matter over the summer with BLM warm-up outfits and jerseys. But Loeffler objected to the practice in June, asking WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to end it.
In a statement mocking the protest in August, Loeffler called the players’ shirts a sign of cancellation culture. “This is just more evidence that the out-of-control cancellation culture wants to shut out anyone who disagrees with them,” she said. “Obviously, the league is more concerned with politics than basketball, and I’m sticking to what I wrote in June.”
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In response, the Atlanta Dream and other members of the WNBA supported one of its Senate opponents, Democrat Raphael Warnock, who even wore “Vote Warnock” shirts during their games. Just two days after players wore the shirts, the campaign had raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 grassroots backers and expanded Warnock’s Twitter account to nearly 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News.
Loeffler was defeated by Warnock in a Jan. 5 second round of elections in which both incumbent Republican senators from Georgia lost it to Democratic challengers, shifting the balance of power in the Senate.
While the players’ protest also called for Loeffler’s removal, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock had said the dream was up for sale publicly before the WNBA’s statement. The potential buyer isn’t known at this point, but Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James threw his hat in the ring on January 6. suggest on Twitter that he wants to “create an ownership group” to buy the team.
CBS News reached out to the Dream for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Zoe Christen Jones has reported.