{"id":69067,"date":"2025-08-14T13:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69067\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T13:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:12:09","slug":"houston-boston-hartford-tipped-as-likely-landing-spots-for-wnbas-connecticut-sun-sportslogos-net-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69067\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston, Boston, Hartford Tipped as Likely Landing Spots for WNBA\u2019s Connecticut Sun \u2013 SportsLogos.Net News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"905\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/featured-905x590-20250814-WNBA-womens-national-basketball-association-connecticut-sun-sale-relocatio.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91095\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The Connecticut Sun of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/1152\/WNBA-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Women\u2019s National Basketball Association<\/a> appear to be on the move soon, with three cities emerging as likely landing spots.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/frontofficesports.com\/wnba-connecticut-sun-sale-relocation-boston-houston\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Front Office Sports<\/a>, the Mohegan Tribe has been trying to sell the Sun for several months. And depending on who the team is sold to \u2014 and which of those potential owners is willing to pay the league a relocation fee \u2014 it could land in Boston, Houston or Hartford.<\/p>\n<p>Houston appears to be the favourite option of the league and commissioner Cathy Engelbert. An expansion bid led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/230\/Houston-Rockets-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Houston Rockets<\/a> owner Tilman Fertitta reportedly fell short of the $250 million expansion fee that groups from <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sportslogos.net\/2025\/06\/30\/wnba-could-see-more-identities-resurrected-with-announcement-of-3-new-teams-by-2030\/basketball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia<\/a> paid earlier this year. But FOS reports that, if Fertitta is willing to buy the Sun and pay the relocation fee, the resurrection of a Houston franchise could be expedited.<\/p>\n<p>Houston was home to a WNBA franchise, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/307\/Houston-Comets-Logos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Comets<\/a>, from 1997 to 2008. The team won four straight WNBA championships from 1997 to 2000, but were disbanded in 2008 when owner Hilton Koch put the team up for sale and no investors stepped up to take over.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"545\" height=\"251\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/houston-comets-primary-logo-20250814-WNBA-womens-national-basketball-association-connecticut-sun-sal.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91093\"  \/>SportsLogos.net files<\/p>\n<p>As noted earlier this year with the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sportslogos.net\/2025\/07\/15\/the-fire-still-burns-portland-wnba-team-reveals-revived-name-new-logos\/basketball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">resurrection of the Portland Fire identity<\/a> and speculation about the Cleveland and Detroit expansion teams bringing back the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/306\/Cleveland-Rockers-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Rockers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/312\/Detroit-Shock-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Shock<\/a> identities respectively, the WNBA has filed for trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for several defunct team nicknames, including the Houston Comets.<\/p>\n<p>Boston \u2014 which has never been home to a WNBA team before \u2014 is in play thanks to the interest of private equity owner Steve Pagliuca, a former co-owner of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/213\/Boston-Celtics-Logos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Celtics<\/a> and current owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sportslogos.net\/2025\/07\/18\/manchester-city-goes-way-back-for-away-kit-inspiration-plus-more-european-unveilings\/soccer\/#:~:text=Atalanta%20BC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Atalanta BC<\/a> in Italy\u2019s Serie A. Pagliuca reportedly had a deal in place to buy the Sun earlier this summer for $325 million, but <a href=\"https:\/\/frontofficesports.com\/pagliuca-offer-to-buy-sun-was-agreed-to-in-july-never-presented-to-wnba-board-of-governors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Engelbert didn\u2019t present the bid to the WNBA board of governors<\/a> in July and thus his exclusive window to negotiate with the Mohegan Tribe expired.<\/p>\n<p>The other city in the running \u2014 and possibly the least appealing to the league, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctinsider.com\/news\/article\/mohegan-connecticut-sun-sale-20813267.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to FOS<\/a> \u2014 is Hartford. The former home city of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/32\/Hartford-Whalers-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NHL\u2019s Whalers<\/a> is the preferred location of a group of Connecticut investors led by former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/225\/Milwaukee-Bucks-Logos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> co-owner Marc Lasry who want to keep the team in the state and have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctinsider.com\/news\/article\/mohegan-connecticut-sun-sale-20813267.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">matched Pagliuca\u2019s $325 million offer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Like Boston, Hartford has never hosted a WNBA franchise before. If successful, it\u2019s conceivable the Connecticut group could keep the Sun nickname for the brand equity already built up, but might have to strip away the Indigenous imagery that\u2019s part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportslogos.net\/logos\/list_by_team\/319\/Connecticut-Sun-Logos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the team\u2019s current identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"526\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/connecticut-sun-primary-logo-20250814-WNBA-womens-national-basketball-association-connecticut-sun-sa.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91092\"  \/>SportsLogos.net files<\/p>\n<p>What city would you like to see the Connecticut Sun move to? What should their name and logo be when they get there? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Connecticut Sun of the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association appear to be on the move soon, with three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-69067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69067","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=69067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}