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Connecticut Sun fans flocked to Pratt Street Saturday afternoon on May 30 to celebrate the Sun’s return to Hartford for the first time in 23 years. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford by defeating Los Angeles at\u00a0PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Blaze, the Connecticut Sun’s mascot, poses with a fan during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on Pratt Street on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Blaze, the Connecticut Sun’s mascot, poses with a fan during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on Pratt Street on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Chalk art on Pratt Street outside of Hartford Prints during the Connecticut Sun’s pregame Fan\u00a0Fest on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Pratt Street was decorated with Connecticut Sun signs and flags during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Pratt Street was decorated with Connecticut Sun signs and flags during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
Pratt Street was decorated with Connecticut Sun signs and flags during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n
Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
HARTFORD \u2014 Hundreds of people decked out in various shades of orange flocked to downtown Hartford\u2019s Pratt Street Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
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Fans of all ages, from various parts of the state, bustled up and down the pedestrian-only street. A large crowd formed a circle outside Bloom Bake Shop as the Connecticut Sun<\/a>\u2019s dance team, the Shine Squad, got into formation and performed routine after routine.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A DJ, hidden on a small balcony above the bake shop, started ripping off loud, irresistible beats. Blaze, the Sun\u2019s mascot, took turns dancing with fans and pulling them into the dance circle with the Shine Squad. People were laughing, singing and grooving as the energy pulsed through the pregame Fan Fest.<\/p>\n Hours later, those same fans stood and gave the Sun a standing ovation after beating the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> inside PeoplesBank Arena. Official attendance records clocked 10,478 for the team\u2019s first game in Hartford since its inaugural season in 2003.<\/p>\n “The atmosphere in this arena was just amazing,” Sun forward Kennedy Burke said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Connecticut Sun’s dance team, the Shine Squad, performs during the team’s Fan Fest on Pratt Street on May 30.\u00a0The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n In a different lifetime, this could have been a weekly occurrence.<\/a> Connecticut has proven itself as a basketball state at the college level, yet its long, successful resume in the sport couldn\u2019t persuade the WNBA.<\/p>\n Make CT Insider a preferred source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Connecticut Sun will relocate to Houston in the fall. The 2026 season is its last summer in the Nutmeg State. Bids to keep the franchise in New England, both from Boston and from Hartford, couldn\u2019t convince the league to keep it local.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But for half the day on Saturday, the city of Hartford got the chance to embrace the what-could-have-been camaraderie that comes with hosting a major-league women\u2019s sports franchise.<\/p>\n \u201cConnecticut’s a basketball state in general,\u201d said Sun and former UConn women’s basketball<\/a> forward Olivia\u00a0Nelson-Ododa. \u201cI mean, the people here love it, they embrace it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n On July 2, the Sun will play its final game in the state\u2019s capital at PeoplesBank Arena when it hosts the Dallas Wings and former UConn stars Paige Bueckers<\/a> and Azzi Fudd<\/a>. The game\u2019s expected to sell out because of Bueckers and Fudd, but it\u2019ll also be the Sun\u2019s final farewell to the city that could have once been its home.<\/p>\n Blaze, the Connecticut Sun’s mascot, dances with\u00a0a fan during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on Pratt Street on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n \u201cI think we’ve proven over the last couple decades that Connecticut deserves a team,\u201d said Sun president and former UConn great Jennifer Rizzotti. \u201cI think when you look at the renovations to this arena, and you think about being in a little bit more densely populated area, it kind of would be somewhere that made sense. Not every city can sustain a W team, but a city like Hartford in Connecticut, I think, could. \u2026 If this leads to that opportunity, to bring a team back, then that will be a good, that will be a positive for us, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Who\u2019s to say how the Sun would have fared had the franchise moved the 45 minutes northwest up Route 2? Its latest rebuilding era on the court doesn\u2019t help the case, as the Sun is last in league standings and missed the playoffs last year for the first time in eight seasons. But no one can deny the state\u2019s passion for the sport.<\/p>\n Rizzotti is Connecticut through and through. She was raised in New Fairfield and became a basketball icon in Storrs. She made her professional debut for the New England Blizzard in Hartford before later making her coaching debut at the University of Hartford. Most recently, she\u2019s made her front office executive debut in Uncasville. She understands this state\u2019s women\u2019s basketball passion better than most.<\/p>\n Former UConn women’s basketball star and current Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti speaks to media inside PeoplesBank Arena ahead of the Sun’s return to Hartford on Saturday, May 30.<\/p>\n Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n It\u2019s because of her experience that she also understands what\u2019s needed to build success both on and off the court. From her coaching roles to her role now with the Sun,\u00a0Rizzotti has learned firsthand what it takes to create a thriving women\u2019s basketball franchise. This spring, she sat in meetings between the WNBA and its players\u2019 union throughout their collective bargaining agreement negotiations.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As prideful as she is to come from this state and have a hand in helping its women\u2019s basketball fandom blossom, she knew the glass ceiling had its limit in Uncasville.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of know where the league is heading, I know what player expectations are,\u201d she said. \u201cI was in the room as they fought for minimum standards for practice facilities. There’s no judgment from me on us not building a practice facility, but knowing that that wasn’t something that was necessarily in the future, I also can understand that it was time to think about what was next, right?<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 So I’ve just been able to look at both sides of it. You know, feel the heartbreak, feel the disappointment as a Connecticut girl and a Connecticut native, and knowing what it means for me and my family and the fans, but also being excited that our players are going to go to a great market and have the resources of an NBA owner, the facilities and infrastructure that will hopefully propel them to not only be successful in the short term, but I think most importantly, that all players in the WNBA have an opportunity to elongate their career because of what is being expected of ownership now.\u201d<\/p>\n Pratt Street was decorated with Connecticut Sun signs and flags during the team’s pregame Fan Fest on May 30. The Sun celebrated returning to Hartford for the first time in 23 years by defeating Los Angeles at PeoplesBank Arena.<\/p>\n Maggie Vanoni \/ Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n On Pratt Street, before Saturday\u2019s game, fans covered a section of the street in colorful chalk drawings. Somehow, they survived the morning\u2019s rain.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On one side of the street, someone had written in orange chalk: \u201cConnecticut Sun 2003-2026\u201d with a big orange heart.<\/p>\n Sometime later, two other drawers added to the artwork. One in orange chalk and another in white chalk.<\/p>\n They read: \u201cDon\u2019t leave \ud83d\ude41 \u201c<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThey’ve gotten to see great players, great people, great basketball. I think that’s kind of what makes it really sad,\u201d Rizzotti said on Connecticut\u2019s women\u2019s basketball fans. \u201cThey’ll still have UConn, obviously, which will be great, but the fact that they got to see that year-round for so long has been really special. There’s not a lot of places that could say that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connecticut Sun fans flocked to Pratt Street Saturday afternoon on May 30 to celebrate the Sun’s return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[222054,49,48,222053,82,630],"class_list":["post-707495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ct-insider","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707495","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=707495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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