The Connecticut Sun are leaving for Houston. Their fans aren’t ready to say goodbye
· Yahoo Sports
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — For 23 years, a red soft-top 2003 Jeep Wrangler with the license plate “CT-SUN” parked in the same lot at Mohegan Sun Arena for a smattering of days between May and September.
As spring turned to summer and summer to fall, Connecticut Sun season ticket holders and friends Lauri Turkington and Laura Kamienski reveled in jumping into that two-door Wrangler for close to a quarter century for the brief 20-minute drive from Griswold, Conn., to Uncasville to watch their home team. Eight years ago, their twosome doubled in size when their next-door neighbors and close friends, Robin Roof and Debbi Luhr, also became season ticket holders.
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On Thursday, they’ll make the trip one last time for the Sun’s final home game before the franchise relocates to Houston, where they’ll adopt the Comets name.
“It’s so sad, but it’s out of our control,” Kamienski said. “We’ve been around the same people for 20-something years. We’ve watched some of them grow up. It’s just sad that those connections and friendships are going to end.”
The Mohegan Tribe became the first independent ownership group in the WNBA and the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team when they bought the Orlando Miracle in 2003 and relocated the team to Connecticut. The franchise became a consistent playoff contender, making 17 postseason appearances and four WNBA Finals runs.
News that the team was exploring a sale first broke last spring. In May, after a prolonged process, the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors approved the sale and relocation of the franchise to Tilman J. Fertitta, owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
The relocation process will begin immediately after this season ends in anticipation of the franchise’s first season as the second iteration of the Comets in 2027. Connecticut Sun general manager Morgan Tuck will remain general manager and said she expects to move with her family in November. Sun president Jen Rizzotti will also stay on as team president.
Although Rizzotti said earlier this season Houston is “an option for everyone,” only Tuck and Rizzotti have disclosed plans to remain with the team.
The Comets will play and practice at the Toyota Center beginning in 2027. The arena is undergoing a $180 million renovation that will produce expanded training facilities, new locker rooms and improved resources.
Patrick Fertitta, son of Tilman Fertitta and the Rockets’ alternate governor, said during the Comets’ introductory press conference in May that while he expects their WNBA team leadership to operate independently of their NBA team, “it would be foolish of us not to use some of the existing infrastructure and support.”
When the Tribe bought into the WNBA in 2003, operational standards in the league were light-years behind where they are today. The new collective bargaining agreement requires every franchise to have a practice facility by the start of the 2028 season, which comes with a hefty price tag for owners. The Sun’s practice space became a point of contention during the 2024 WNBA playoffs when the team was forced to share their gym with a children’s birthday party before their first playoff game in the first-round series against the Indiana Fever.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who announced her retirement earlier this month, has repeatedly emphasized that the league would prioritize expansion bids from groups with established infrastructure.
The Sun’s final season in Connecticut has been a slog. They are on a six-game losing streak heading into Thursday — their final game as the Sun — against the Toronto Tempo. Despite the struggle, Connecticut has found reason to celebrate by honoring former team legends throughout the season, including future Hall of Famer Tina Charles, four-time WNBA champion Lindsay Whalen, and legendary coach Mike Thibault.
The franchise honored Thibault, its first coach, on Sunday after the Sun’s 101-89 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. Thibault, the winningest coach in WNBA history before Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve passed him this season, was originally set to replace Linda Hargrove as coach of the first iteration of the Portland Fire following the 2002 season. The Fire folded two weeks later.
Shortly after, he received a call inquiring about his interest in leading the Sun.
“I took the job, had my press conference and then sat in the stands that night and said, ‘OK, what the hell did I just do?’” Thibault said.
The alarms going off in Thibault’s head were connected to the stark realities of being the WNBA’s first independent franchise. There was no infrastructure, no equipment, and, other than having the rights to players, the team was building everything from scratch.
“There weren’t any people to copy,” Thibault said. “Because all those other teams at that time had an NBA team to fall back on for both physical, financial and technological support. We didn’t have that.”
Thibault led the Sun to back-to-back finals appearances in his second and third years at the helm. Uncasville became a women’s basketball hub, hosting major NCAA women’s basketball tournaments and multiple WNBA All-Star games during a time when the sport received little fanfare.
“There was a time when the league wasn’t what it is now, and this organization, this franchise, stepped up and hosted All-Star games, drafts — how many finals games have been played here?” Whalen said. “It’s unfortunate for the fans here and the people that brought this organization here. But at the same time, leagues grow, and there’s bigger markets.”
Seven Sun players signed to multi-year contracts — Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Aaliyah Edwards, Leïla Lacan and Saniya Rivers — are expected to be foundational players as the Comets launch.
“Obviously a bit sad, especially going to UConn for four years and playing so much basketball here in the state of Connecticut,” Edwards said. “But it’s exciting, the impact women’s basketball has had across North America and what’s to come.”
Asked what she’ll remember the most about her time in Uncasville, Edwards smiled and said, “The wins.”
Veteran center Brittney Griner signed a one-year $1.19 million contract with the Sun ahead of the team’s move to her hometown of Houston. However, she will have to reach new terms with the franchise in the new year, as she’s set to become an unrestricted free agent.
Fans are still grappling with the loss of the state’s only professional sports team. Emotions have been mixed: On one hand, many are excited about the revival of one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises, but on the other, it came at the expense of their own. Some said they will direct their fandom toward the UConn Huskies women’s basketball program and that they plan to support the New York Liberty during the WNBA season.
But others said they won’t cheer for a WNBA team until one returns to New England.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Sun fan Denise Tift said. “I know I will not root for another team. I’ll move on to my favorite (players) with a Connecticut Sun focus.”
There’s no indication of when a new team might replace the Sun, but multiple attempts were made to keep the team in the area, with interested ownership groups in Boston and Hartford.
“It would be nice if someday they could have a team come back,” Luhr said. “Then people would be excited like they are excited about them going to Houston.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Connecticut Sun, WNBA, women's sports
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