WNBA says sale of Atlanta Dream, co-owned by Kelly Loeffler, is “nearing completion”

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

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

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

The WNBA and Dream came out on top with Black Lives Matter’s support all summer long with warm-up BLM outfits and T-shirts. But Loeffler opposed the practice in June and called on WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to end it.

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

In response, Atlanta Dream and other WNBA members backed one of her Senate opponents, Democrat Raphael Warnock, to the point of wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts at their games. Just two days after the players wore the shirts, the campaign raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 basic donors and expanded Warnock’s Twitter account by nearly 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News.

Loeffler was defeated by Warnock in a Jan. 5 by-election that saw both Republican senators in office in Georgia lose to provocative Democrats, shifting the balance of power in the Senate.

While the players’ protest also called for Loeffler’s removal, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock said the dream was for public sale before the WNBA statement. The potential buyer is unknown at this time, but Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James threw his hat in the ring on Jan. 6. suggesting on Twitter that he wants to “form a property group” to buy the team.

CBS News addressed the dream for comment, but did not hear it immediately.

Zoe Christen Jones contributed to the reporting.