WNBA says sale of Atlanta Dream, team owned by Kelly Loeffler, is “close to completion”

Atlanta Dream, a WNBA team co-owned by Senator Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, is about to be sold, the league confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the potential sale.

“As far as the Atlanta Dream is concerned, we understand that the sale of the franchise is nearing completion,” a WNBA spokesman told CBS News. “As soon as the sale negotiation is completed, additional information will be provided.”

The news of a possible deal comes the same day that Loeffler, a Republican, is ending his term as a senator.

WNBA and Dream made headlines with the entire league supporting the Black Lives Matter over the summer, in BLM uniforms and T-shirts. But Loeffler opposed the practice in June and asked WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to put an end to this.

In a statement ridiculing the protest in August, Loeffler called players’ shirts a sign of a culture of cancellation. “This is just further proof that the culture of deregulation wants to exclude anyone who disagrees with them,” she said. “It is clear that the league is more concerned with politics than basketball, and I stick to what I wrote in June.”

In response, the Atlanta Dream and other WNBA members endorsed one of their Senate opponents, Democrat Raphael Warnock, even wearing “Vote Warnock” t-shirts in their games. Just two days after players donned the shirts, the campaign raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 grassroots donors and increased Warnock’s Twitter account to nearly 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News.

Loeffler was defeated by Warnock in a January 5 run-off election that saw Georgia’s two Republican senators lose to Democratic opponents, shifting the balance of power in the Senate.

Although the players’ protest also called for Loeffler’s removal, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock said the Dream was publicly available before the WNBA statement. The potential buyer is not known at the moment, but Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James threw his hat into the ring on January 6, suggesting on Twitter that he wants to “set up a property group” to buy the team.

CBS News approached Dream for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

Zoe Christen Jones contributed reporting.