{"id":219265,"date":"2025-10-12T13:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T13:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/219265\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T13:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T13:46:07","slug":"wnba-fans-expansion-wish-is-still-very-much-alive-despite-missed-bid-in-the-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/219265\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA fans\u2019 expansion wish is still very much alive despite missed bid in the summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">The Las Vegas Aces just won their third title in four years and have officially entered dynasty territory akin to what the Houston Comets did in the first four years of the league, the Detroit Shock in the early 2000s, and the Minnesota Lynx in the 2010s. Out of those three teams, the Lynx are the only one that still exists in the same city and under the same name.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">The Shock were relocated to Tulsa in 2009. In 2015, the team became the Dallas Wings. Meanwhile, the Houston Comets folded in 2008 much to fans\u2019 great dismay. Now that the WNBA is growing and seeing unprecedented popularity, fans have been <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/posts\/ranking-7-cities-wnba-should-expand-leagues-16th-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pushing for another team in Houston<\/a>. With all the dynasty talk surrounding the Aces, fans\u2019 nostalgia for the Comets has been highlighted once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">So far, Houston hasn\u2019t been awarded an expansion team. Instead, the WNBA decided to move to Toronto, Portland, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. However, there may be another way Houston can get its second shot at housing a WNBA team. NBA insider Jake Fischer <a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/the-nbas-latest-contract-extension\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently reported that<\/a> \u201cword has persisted that Houston continues to be the leading destination for relocation of the Connecticut Sun, according to league sources, if the franchise is indeed moved out of the Mohegan Sun casino to a new locale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The current owners are looking to sell the Sun<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">In 2003, the Mohegan Tribe bought the Orlando Miracle and moved the team to Connecticut. Now, the owners are reportedly ready to sell the team. At first, it <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/boston-remains-wnba-destination-despite-pushback-from-league\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">seemed the team was headed to Boston<\/a>\u2014a prominent basketball city that already drew in tons of fans when the Sun played regular-season games at TD Garden. Hartford was also an option that would keep the team in Connecticut.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">However, the league didn\u2019t accept either proposal, noting that cities that have already gone through the process of applying for an expansion team should have priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Houston was a staple in women\u2019s basketball during the early years of the WNBA<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">Houston was home to one of the WNBA\u2019s original eight franchises and the league\u2019s first dynasty. Led by Cynthia Cooper, Tina Thompson, and Sheryl Swoopes, the Comets won the WNBA\u2019s first four championships and firmly established the league\u2019s first dynasty. Losing the team in 2008 was a big blow to the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">If the Sun moved to Houston, it would technically be a different franchise than the early Comets dynasty. Nevertheless, it would be a thrill for WNBA fans in Houston, especially the ones who were around when the league first started.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Aces just won their third title in four years and have officially entered dynasty territory&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-219265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}