WNBA Says Sale of Atlanta Dream, Team Co-Owned By Kelly Loeffler, “Close To Completion”

The Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team jointly owned by incumbent Georgian Senator Kelly Loeffler, is set to be sold, the league confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the potential sale.

“Regarding the Atlanta dream, we understand that a sale of the franchise is about to be finalized,” a WNBA spokesperson told CBS News. “Once the sale negotiation is concluded, additional information will be provided.”

News of a possible deal comes the same day Loeffler, a Republican, ends his term as a senator.

The WNBA and Dream made headlines with their league-wide support for Black Lives Matter over the summer with BLM warm-up outfits and jerseys. But Loeffler opposed the practice in June and called on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to end it.

In a statement ridiculing the protest in August, Loeffler called the players’ shirts a sign of cancellation culture. “It’s just further proof that the culture of out of control cancellation wants to exclude anyone who doesn’t agree with it,” she said. “It is clear that the league is more concerned with politics than basketball, and I stand by what I wrote in June.”

In response, the Atlanta Dream and other WNBA members endorsed one of its Senate opponents, Democrat Raphael Warnock, going so far as to wear “Vote Warnock” shirts to their games. Just two days after players wore the jerseys, the campaign had raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 base donors and increased Warnock’s Twitter account by nearly 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News.

Loeffler was defeated by Warnock in a Jan.5 runoff that saw Georgia’s two outgoing Republican senators lose to Democratic challengers, shifting the balance of power in the Senate.

While the player protest also called for Loeffler’s removal, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock said the Dream was on sale publicly prior to the WNBA’s statement. The potential buyer is not known at this time, but Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James threw his hat in the ring on January 6. suggesting on Twitter that he wants to “form an ownership group” to buy the team.

CBS News reached out to Dream for comment, but did not immediately respond.

Zoe Christen Jones contributed reporting.