As of now, many questions remain surrounding the next WNBA season, one of the biggest being whether there will be a season at all. That might be answered with a potential strike by the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WBNPA) on the rise.
In the meantime, it is equally important to look at the future of individual teams within the league.
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More specifically, one of the biggest questions that remains unanswered for the Connecticut Sun is where their players will be playing basketball next season, if in Connecticut at all. There have been several pitches to buy the team and relocate it, with the newest bid coming from the ownership group of the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
With no specifics disclosed yet, sources are reported to have said the Rockets’ owners surpassed the $250 million bid proposed by the WNBA in August to purchase the Connecticut Sun altogether. This came after the league chose to block the potential sale of the team to former Boston Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca.
The sale would have ultimately gone for $325 million and a potential relocation to Boston. Before Pagliuca could make any real moves, the league office was quick to shut it down.
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Connecticut is Left with an Empty Void Once Again
The possibility of moving one of the league’s remaining original teams since 1997 to Houston ultimately leaves Connecticut in the dust. Houston itself is where yet another original WNBA team, the Houston Comets, played until 2008.
Time and time again, Connecticut sports fans have admitted that the state can’t keep any professional sports teams. This is often in reference to the Hartford Whalers, the state’s former National Hockey League team. The team ultimately relocated to Raleigh, NC, to become the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997.
While the question of where the Sun may be heading off to remains unanswered, fans are starting to accept Connecticut’s fate as time goes on. The state has failed time after time with truly investing in its professional, top-tier sports teams to the point where it has continued to come back to haunt fans even decades later.
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As of right now, the Connecticut Sun play in Uncasville, CT, making them the only team in the entire league to not play in a major city. That in itself is already creating a lack of accessibility for people to come out in person to support the team.
This, along with the fact that the Mohegan Sun Arena only holds 10,000 seats, isn’t creating a true sports fan environment. The arena itself hasn’t done much to support the players themselves either. One example of this is that during the playoffs in 2024, the team had to share the court with a two-year-old’s birthday party during practice time.
With this lack of investment came warning signs through the entire starting lineup, leaving the team to go play somewhere else. Ultimately, those warning signs were not loud enough for Connecticut to make big enough changes, where the future of Connecticut sports altogether is now at stake.
All Eyes on the College Kids
With the potential relocation of the Sun comes Connecticut sports fans relying on the UConn Huskies as their only hope to showcase their Connecticut pride in a mainstream setting.
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Due to the state’s inability to invest in professional sports teams, most recently a professional women’s sports team, all eyes will look to the collegiate-level athletes to represent Connecticut on the court and on the screen for viewers across the nation.
It’s a running joke that Connecticut can’t keep a team, but it’s getting closer to the truth every day.
The post Where Are the Sun Going and What Could it Mean for Connecticut? appeared first on The Lead.
