Montgomery partners with New London native to buy WNBA’s Atlanta Dream
Renee Montgomery opted out of the 2020 WNBA season in June and announced her retirement earlier this month. As enterprising as she is, no matter the spotlight on her new basketball existence, it might take a while for Montgomery to start thinking of herself as a former player.
She said, “We,” a few times Friday afternoon while discussing WNBA players during a teleconference to announce the new ownership group for the Atlanta Dream. Larry Gottesdiener, a New London native and chairman of real estate giant Northland, is the majority owner. Montgomery and Northland president and COO Suzanne Abair are on board as investors and executives.
“I feel like I would still be able to play if I wanted to,” said Montgomery, 34. “But I recognize this opportunity.”
Montgomery won a national championship at UConn in 2009 and two titles in an 11-year WNBA playing career. She played her final two seasons with the Dream, a franchise at the forefront of movements in the summer of 2020 that changed the national political and social justice landscapes.
The sale, terms of which were not disclosed, ends the ownership tenure of former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia).
To the ire of WNBA players and other athletes of prominence, Loeffler in 2020 had objected to players’ support for a Black Lives Matter movement taking hold in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Dream players responded by backing Loeffler’s opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, even wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts, part of a watershed moment in the nation’s political discourse. Warnock, once trailing substantially in polls, went on to defeat Loeffler in a Georgia run-off election with the help of the player-led movement. The result, combined with Jon Ossoff’s victory over David Perdue, flipped control of the U.S. Senate from Republican to Democrat.
“My mindset is where we’re going, not necessarily where we’ve been,” Montgomery said when asked about Loeffler.
Montgomery and Abair will lead the Dream’s day-to-day operations. A large part of Montgomery’s focus will be on empowering women of the league, partnering the Dream with various social justice initiatives and working to expand mainstream media coverage for the WNBA.
“The future is female,” Montgomery said.
She added that her place in management as a Black female executive is “a win for women’s sports. That’s a win for women’s basketball. That shows a lot of representation. All the things that we wanted as players is happening here in Atlanta and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it. Atlanta is a city full of powerful women, women that are leaders in business, leaders in management. I’m just excited to be in a city that is very welcoming to powerful women.”
Montgomery specifically mentioned politician Stacey Abrams, also influential in the 2020 elections, and mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Gottesdiener, who splits his time between Massachusetts and California, is a longtime UConn fan and a player on the sports scene who once tried to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins with an eye toward returning the NHL to Hartford.
Of his desire to own a WNBA franchise, he said, “It starts with my roots. I grew up in a diverse, bluecollar town in Connecticut, New London. Connecticut is one of the hotbeds of women’s basketball. I’ve followed the W since the (original) ‘We Got Next,’ campaign, which I still think is one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen.”
“I followed the undefeated UConn team in 1995 and the Olympic team of 1996, but I think what really got me to become a supporter — and hopefully a champion of — women’s sports was having a really gritty first-born daughter who was so pissed off that the high school didn’t have a girls wrestling team that she competed on the men’s team.”
Gottesdiener said he is committed to keeping the Dream in Atlanta, its home since the franchise was founded in 2008.
“The Dream has always been an Atlanta asset, but they really solidified their place in the city, in the community, and in history last year,” Gottesdiener said. “This team and this city at this time, the women of the Dream showed incredible character last year. They were brave in speaking out for what they believed in and we want to solidify that connection, amplify their voices and we want to (recognize) their place in history. This is an Atlanta asset. We’re stewards of it. We’re hoping to build something that Atlanta can be proud of.”