Connecticut Sun Sold, Will Move to Houston
- Paul Baker
- Apr 2
- 3 min read
On March 30 the Mohegan Tribe, owners of the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA, announced that they had reached an agreement with the Tilman J. Fertitta family, owners of the NBA's Houston Rockets, to sell the team for a reported $300 million. As part of the sale, the franchise will move to Houston, Texas after the completion of the 2026 season and will be rebranded as the Comets.
This announcement was met with much criticism, both locally and nationally. The criticism was two-fold and directed squarely at interference by the league offices in the sale of the Sun. The Mohegan Tribe had received a pair of offers, both from New England-based groups, both of which were for more money than the eventual sale price from the Houston group.
These New England-based bids to buy the Sun came from former Boston Celtics owner Steven Pagliuca, who would have moved the team to the TD Garden in Boston, and Marc Lasry, former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, who planned to move the team to Hartford and PeoplesBank Arena. Both bids were reported to be around $325 million, a full $25 million more than the winning bid from the Houston group.
Why did the Sun take the lesser bid? Basically, they had no other choice; the league forced them to. When the league announced their recent expansion plans (with Houston notably left off the list), WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert made it crystal clear that “Houston would be next, for sure.” When the Sun received bids for their team that included relocation, the league released a statement that made it clear that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams.”
At this time, the league also noted that when the expansion process started, nine cities submitted bids, with Boston not among them. The league stated, “no groups from Boston applied for a team” and that the other cities “currently have priority.” But they neglected to consider this: At the time the league was taking expansion bids, the Sun was not yet up for sale, nor were there relocation rumors. Why would a Boston group enter into an expansion competition when there was a team already right in their back yard?
So, in the end, the league got what it wanted. A team in Houston. And it’s great to have the Comets back. They were the league's flagship franchise in the early years of the WNBA, after all, winning consecutive championships from 1997-2000.
But, there are far more losers in this deal than winners. The Mohegan Tribe was forced to take less money. The League lost out on a relocation fee. One of the top women’s basketball markets in the country is without a team for the foreseeable future, as expansion teams are already lined up for the next several seasons. The Players’ Union lost out, as this windfall of money was announced AFTER the new contract was finalized. Connecticut sports fans, already reeling from the announcement that the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders are moving to Hamilton, Ontario after this season, are losing another team after supporting it through the lean years of the WNBA. This league, with its history of getting in its own way, has done it once again.
And the Sun will soon set on professional women’s basketball in Connecticut.
