The Atlanta Dream are on the verge of being sold in a deal that would likely end outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s ownership stake in the WNBA team.
“As it relates to the Atlanta Dream, we understand a sale of the franchise is close to being finalized,” the league said in a statement. “Once the sale negotiation is concluded, additional information will be provided.”
There are a handful of bidders remaining, while Loeffler is expected to have no association with the franchise once the sale is completed, according to ESPN.
Loeffler, who has owned a stake in the team for nearly a decade, has been at odds with many of the players over her condemnation of the Black Lives Matter movement. She decried the movement as “totally misaligned with the values and goals of the WNBA and the Atlanta Dream, where we support tolerance and inclusion.”
Loeffler, who was appointed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to sit in after Sen. Johnny Isakson resigned in late 2019, lost her 2020 bid to stay in office to her Democratic challenger, Rev. Raphael Warnock. Many Dream players endorsed Warnock and encouraged Georgians to vote for him in the Senate runoff election in January after she refused to sell her stake in the team.
The fallout between Loeffler and the WNBA reached a crescendo after she wrote a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert questioning the league’s decision to align with Black Lives Matter during a summer of demonstrations against racial inequality and police brutality.
“This isn’t about playing basketball. It’s about playing politics,” Loeffler said at the time the players endorsed Warnock. “Everyone has a right to choose who they want to vote for, but because I stood up for our American flag, suggested that we replace that with the divisive idea of this political organization, Black Lives Matter, not the statement, we all agree with the statement, but this political organization that wants to defund the police, that promotes anti-Semitism, and violence. It doesn’t believe in the nuclear family — I mean, we’re talking moms and dads.”
Warnock will be sworn-in on Wednesday afternoon, hours after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn-in.
