WNBA approves sale of Atlanta Dream to New London native Gottesdiener, former UConn star Montgomery

Kelly Loeffler's ownership tenure — tumultuous in the past year — of the Dream is over.

The sale of the team was completed with the announcement that the WNBA franchise has been sold to majority owner Larry Gottesdiener, chairman of the national real estate firm Northland, on Friday. He is joined in a three-member investor group with former Dream player Renee Montgomery and Northland President and Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Abair. The owners and the league declined to disclose the ownership percentages.

The sale of the WNBA franchise was described as "imminent" to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month by a league representative. The AJC first reported that the sale could be announced Friday.

Co-owned by former U.S. Sen. Loeffler, the team has been embroiled in conflict over her remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement. Dream players were open in their support of the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who defeated Loeffler in a runoff election for her Senate seat last month.

Despite remarks that she did not plan to sell the WNBA franchise, coowned with Mary Brock since 2011, the sale was completed Friday with the league announcement that it has been approved by the WNBA and NBA Boards of Governors.

"Last year, 2020, the players of the Dream refused to just shut up and dribble," Gottesdiener said. "They found their collective voice and the world listened. We are inspired by these brave women who navigated sports and activism in the midst of a pandemic and we want to celebrate and honor them. We are particularly proud to be stewards of this team, in this city, at this time."

Gottesdiener said there are no plans to relocate the franchise.

Gottesdiener is the founder and chairman of Northland Investment Corporation, described as a $10 billion real estate private equity firm. Gottesdiener said he had interest in purchasing a professional sports franchise for several years, including the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins.

He said at one time he looked into buying the Atlanta Thrashers, who were sold and moved to Winnipeg nearly 10 years ago.

Gottesdiener, originally from New London, said he splits most of his time between Massachusetts and California. He said he was a big fan of the 1995 undefeated University of Connecticut women's basketball team. Montgomery won a national championship at Connecticut in 2009.

"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 (ticked) off that the high school team didn't have a girl's wrestling team that she went out and competed on the men's team," Gottesdiener said. "... I'm surrounded by really strong and thoughtful women in my personal and professional life. Present company included, I'm referring to Renee and Suzanne. I believe in them. I support them whatever they ask to support. I think this is just an opportunity to expand that support for women's sports generally but women's basketball particularly."

Montgomery, a two-time WNBA champion at former UConn star, will be the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a WNBA team. Montgomery sat out the 2020 season to focus on social justice issues and recently announced her retirement from the league after 11 seasons. Montgomery has been working on broadcasts of Atlanta Hawks games this season.