UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT – MAY 15: Signage honoring the final season of the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 15, 2026 in Uncasville, Connecticut. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
During the Connecticut Sun’s inaugural season in 2003, the franchise decided to bring its show to the state’s capital and host a game in Hartford. The goal back then was simple: introduce more people to the Sun and get the state excited about having a WNBA team.
Twenty-three years later, the Sun return to Hartford with a new goal – to help fans, and the state, appreciate what it has until it’s gone.
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Connecticut will relocate to Houston next year. The 2026 season is its last before team is rebranded, packed up, and shipped off to a new state. Despite showing off the depth of its New England fan base with back-to-back sold-out games at Boston’s TD Garden, attempts to keep the Sun in Connecticut and in New England were ultimately thwarted by the WNBA.
Instead of focusing on building for seasons to come, these last 44 regular-season games, including 22 home games, have become an extended farewell tour as the franchise looks to celebrate its history and its fans at every chance.
Such is the plan Saturday when the Sun (1-8) return to Hartford for the first time in 23 years to host Los Angeles (6 p.m. on NBC Sports Boston) – one of two games Connecticut will play at PeoplesBank Arena this summer. On July 2, Connecticut will host its last-ever game in Hartford when former UConn women’s basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd return with the Dallas Wings.
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This year’s Hartford games have been in the works for just under a year, even before Connecticut’s relocation news became official. While the eventual move changes the tone of the season, getting the chance to bring the team on the road, even if it’s just a 50-minute drive north, brings excitement.
Connecticut Sun Fan Fest on Pratt Street
Date: Saturday, May 30
Price: Free
Location: Pratt Street across from PeoplesBank Arena
Time: 2 – 5 p.m. Doors to PeoplesBank Arena will open at 5 p.m. ahead of the Sun’s 6 p.m. game against Los Angeles
The Sun will be celebrating its return to Hartford with a Fan Fest block party on Pratt Street ahead of its game against the Los Angeles Sparks at PeoplesBank Arena. The game marks the first WNBA game hosted in Hartford since 2003, when the Sun defeated the Charlotte Sting, 74-70, at Hartford Civic Center on July 26 in its inaugural season.
Saturday’s pregame Fan Fest will include:
Exclusive merch drop: Campus Customs pop-up featuring a limited-edition Connecticut Sun x Hartford t-shirt
Live DJ set: DJ WhyNot performing from the Bloom Bake Shop balcony
Coca-Cola Fan Zone Truck: Free Coke and Fanta ice cream floats
Basketball activations: In partnership with Hartford Parks & Recreation
Live art installation: Custom window art by local artist Jillian Goeler
“Through the Generations” CT Sun activation celebrating the team’s legacy and fan connections
Live entertainment: Double Dutch performances and appearances from the Sun’s Shine Squad
Community experiences:
Professional barber pop-up for Sun-themed hair styles
Refuge Tattoo shop activation with temporary tattoos
Photo moments & food:
Roaming photo booth
Connecticut Sun–themed ice cream
Fresh kettle corn
Balloon arch and fan-friendly installations throughout
Krista May, the Sun’s VP of business operations, and her staff have experience picking up and moving the team after hosting games in Boston in both 2024 and 2025. This year, with two games in Hartford and one more in Boston, she hopes to make these games everlasting memories for both the fans and the team.
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“They deserve a full arena, they deserve people cheering for them,” May told CT Insider. “… We want it to be loud. We want them to feel loved. The coaching staff, this basketball staff, the business staff, the players; they all love this so much that having people there and showing the support is just going to mean so, so, so much.”
What still stands out the most to Chris Sienko, the Sun’s first general manager, was the sheer depth of basketball talent on the floor that summer day inside the Hartford Civic Center when the Sun hosted the now-defunct Charlotte Sting on July 26, 2003, in its first-ever Hartford game.
Connecticut won 74-70 thanks to 23 points from former UConn great Nykesha Sales. Dawn Staley and Allison Feaster, mom of current UConn star Sarah Strong, combined for 19 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for Charlotte. Sun starters Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Brooke Wyckoff and Katie Douglass scored a combined 23 points and 18 rebounds. While Rebecca Lobo, in her final season in the WNBA, came off the bench for the Sun.
“The fans in Hartford got a legitimately great game that night,” wrote Sienko in an email to CT Insider.
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Yet, Sun never returned to Hartford.
While the reception was positive and successfully introduced more people to the WNBA, it also affirmed that what Sienko and his staff were building down in Uncasville was special. There was no need to uproot what was just beginning at Mohegan Sun Arena, especially since the casino boasted amenities that Hartford did not, such as free parking.
The Sun proved not only could it survive in the league’s smallest market but thrive. The franchise became the first WNBA team to make profit and reached the WNBA Finals twice within its first three seasons in Connecticut.
“It was an opportunity to test the market, generate some buzz, and meet fans where they were,” says Sienko of the intention of the Sun’s first trip to Hartford. “But let’s be honest: it was one game, by design, and there were never any plans beyond that. … Hartford was a nice detour, but Uncasville was always home.”
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But a lot has changed in the two-plus decades since.
WNBA teams have become the summer’s hottest commodity. Fans sell out NBA arenas, shoveling out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars to watch today’s young stars. Franchise evaluations are higher than ever as everyone wants a piece, from the ownership level down to media rights deals.
UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT – MAY 15: Connecticut Sun mascot Blaze performs during team introductions before a WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 15, 2026 in Uncasville, Connecticut. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
The Mohegan Tribe’s sale of the Connecticut Sun to Houston is an obvious example. In 2003, Mohegan bought the Sun franchise for $10 million. In March, it agreed to sell the team for $300 million.
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However, that growth comes at a cost. The demands for sustaining a competitive team have forced the hands of small markets and individual owners, like the Mohegan Tribe. State-of-the-art practice facilities are a requirement (Sun remain the only WNBA team without such facility), while players seek markets where they can grow their individual brands just as much as their basketball talents. Even moving home games to larger in-market arenas comes at a steeper price.
May says it wasn’t until after the Sun’s second-straight sellout at TD Garden last summer when the franchise began talking about the possibility of returning to Hartford. In previous years, it wasn’t worth it financially as the close proximity didn’t make sense in the franchise’s efforts to grow its fan base across the other New England states.
But if the Sun could successfully host in Boston, why not try the larger, in-state arena just 50 minutes away? Plus, PeoplesBank Arena’s recent $145 million renovations were a bonus.
“I think a part of it was, you know, Hartford’s not that far, so for us to pick up everything and go there seemed, maybe not silly, but not necessary, as far as the fan development strategies that we were looking at,” says May. “But then it kind of got to the point where we were like, well, we get limited here (Mohegan Sun Arena) in seating, and Hartford seats that many more. And they just did a ton of renovations, so it made it really attractive to look into.”
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Through the jigsaw puzzle of the WNBA schedule, it just so happened the Sun and PeoplesBank Arena were able to make two dates work on the calendar this summer: Saturday’s game against the Sparks and July’s game against Dallas.
“It’s a little bit of strategy and a lot of just divine intervention,” says May, smiling.
UNCASVILLE, CT – MAY 10: General view of the WNBA and Connect Sun logo’s during the WNBA game between Seattle Storm and Connecticut Sun on May 10, 2026, at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. (Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Sun understands the massive draw of hosting Bueckers and Fudd in Hartford. Originally, Mohegan Sun Arena was scheduled to be unavailable during the Sun’s home game against the Wings due to a Meghan Trainor concert, which has since been canceled.
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“It’s turned out to be something that could be really, really special for Connecticut to have Paige, and now Azzi, play against the Sun for the last time in the regular season in Hartford, where so so many of their fans are,” says May.
While physically transporting the Sun’s court and equipment 45 miles up Route 2 from Uncasville to Hartford is less of a headache than commuting it to Boston, playing at PeoplesBank Arena comes with other challenges.
While the arena hosts both the UConn women’s and men’s basketball teams and the Hartford Wolf Pack, it isn’t naturally set up to meet certain WNBA and NBA standards. May and her Mohegan Sun Arena team have been working closely with the staff at PeoplesBank Arena to install temporary video-replay and time tracking systems, along with other technology updates.
While the Sun will be using the UConn locker room, May had to convert the Wolf Pack’s weight room as overflow locker room space for coaches. She also had to assign a second ambulance to be on-site in accordance with WNBA standards (one for players and one for general fans and staff). With Don Toliver performing at PeoplesBank Arena Friday night, May and her staff held a game-like dress rehearsal last week at the arena to prepare for Saturday’s game. It helps that the Sun’s in-game arena host and DJ both work UConn games at PeoplesBank Arena.
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The Sun will practice Friday down in Uncasville before spending both Friday and Saturday night in Hartford.
“The city’s really embraced it,” says May. “And everybody that we work with up there wants it to be super successful and wants people to be able to come and enjoy it while they can.”
Like the Sun’s two previous Boston games, the team will also be hosting a Fan Fest block party ahead of the game on Pratt Street that will include exclusive merchandise, photo opportunities, music, basketball activations and a Double Dutch performance.
The PeoplesBank Arena on Friday, October 10, 2025, in Hartford.
Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media
At one point last year, there was a chance that Hartford could have been the Sun’s new home. May sees the hurt and frustration from fans on social media of losing the team to a new market, a new state. But it’s that passion that’s motivating her to help make this final Sun season special, starting with Saturday’s return to Hartford.
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“We still have three quarters of a season where we can show the players and the fans just how much the team has meant to us over the years,” she says. “… There’s only a finite number of times and chances to see the team play and to be a Connecticut Sun fan watching the Connecticut Sun in their jerseys. And those numbers are dwindling each week.”
Sienko no longer works in the WNBA. He left Connecticut in 2016 and briefly spent time as the Atlanta Dream’s President and general manager, earning the WNBA’s 2018 Executive of the Year award.
He understands the realities of the Sun’s relocation and remains proud of what the franchise created.
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“A lot of people built something real in Connecticut — something that took years of hard work, belief, and an incredibly loyal fan base that showed up before this league was cool,” he wrote to CT Insider. “… I understand the business — the numbers are staggering, the league is thriving, and the move reflects just how far women’s basketball has come. But none of that makes it easier for the people who gave this team their heart. There will be a void in New England that won’t fill easily. These are Sun fans — they always will be.”
“And just so we’re all clear,” Sienko joked, “Adopting a New York team is not a coping mechanism and against the law.”