{"id":575980,"date":"2026-04-01T21:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575980\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:41:09","slug":"connecticut-sun-to-houston-sale-draws-frustration-questions-about-nbas-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575980\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Sun to Houston: sale draws frustration, questions about NBA\u2019s role"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Connecticut Sun will relocate to Texas<\/a> in 2027 after the franchise was sold to the ownership group behind the NBA\u2019s Houston Rockets, ending the Nutmeg State\u2019s 24 season run with a WNBA team.<\/p>\n

State officials and fans have reason to feel frustrated, said Hartford Courant columnist Dom Amore<\/a>, who pointed to the league\u2019s role in steering the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly have a right to feel that they were treated unfairly by, not so much the WNBA, but the NBA, which effectively runs the WNBA,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

The Mohegan Tribe<\/a>, which bought the team for about $10 million and is now selling it for roughly $300 million, chose not to pursue legal action that could have delayed or complicated the deal. Tribe officials did not respond to request for comment. While the tribe has not publicly explained why they accepted the Houston deal, it has been widely reported that the tribe has been deeply in debt due to a failed investment in South Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took the $300 million in hand, rather than get involved suing the league to try to get $25 million more,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

Competing bids, blocked options<\/p>\n

Amore said a Boston-area group had reached a deal to buy the team for about $325 million and keep it in New England, but the league rejected that proposal.\u201cThe league stepped in and said, \u2018No, no, no, we don’t want that,\u2019\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

A separate effort to move the team to Hartford\u2019s newly renovated People\u2019s Bank Arena<\/a> also failed to gain approval. Amore questioned the league\u2019s reasoning for blocking a Hartford relocation, on the grounds that the league had also allowed the New York Liberty\u2019s WNBA team to move from Newark, to Westchester to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that that is completely flawed logic because Hartford is still in Connecticut,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that both Hartford and Boston offered larger arenas than Mohegan Sun Arena, which seats about 8,000 and has become too small for the league\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason anyone was willing to pay $300 million is to get them out of that arena and into a bigger arena,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

Why Houston?<\/p>\n

Amore said the move reflects broader league priorities, including geography and ownership structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to move a franchise from the east to the west, and so Houston was where they wanted to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also suggested the NBA\u2019s preference for WNBA teams to be owned by NBA ownership groups played a role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam Silver wants NBA owners to own the WNBA teams,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

A difficult reality for Connecticut<\/p>\n

The Sun\u2019s departure leaves Connecticut without a major league professional franchise, something Amore said reflects broader market challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a women\u2019s basketball market,\u201d he said, noting strong regional interest in the sport due largely to the success of the University of Connecticut Women\u2019s Basketball program.<\/p>\n

But he added that Connecticut\u2019s position between larger media markets makes it difficult to compete for teams and television revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be hard to sell Connecticut as a major market,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n

What comes next?<\/p>\n

Any return of the WNBA to Connecticut would be an uncertain path, Amore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to have to bid for an expansion team and win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even then, he added, Connecticut may remain a long shot unless other major markets are already filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that the odds of the WNBA coming back to Connecticut would be bleak,\u201d Amore said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Connecticut Sun will relocate to Texas in 2027 after the franchise was sold to the ownership group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-575980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}