WNBA’s Sun May Be Sold, Moved to Houston Despite Significant Local Bids

Houston appears set to move the Connecticut franchise, despite other ownership groups attempting to relocate the team to Boston and Hartford.

Mohegan Sun Arena, home of the Sun, hosted the WNBA All-Star Game in 2013. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

An era of WNBA basketball in women’s basketball-crazed Connecticut may be coming to an end. Amid years of rumors about the future of the Sun—and whether they would relocate within the state or elsewhere in greater New England—a new proposal would have the franchise move halfway across the country as an NBA owner looks to revive one of the most successful franchises in league history.

The Mohegan tribe seeking to sell the Connecticut franchise, which plays at Mohegan Sun casino’s 10,000-seat arena. While much of the focus has been on keeping the franchise local, according to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelburne, the ownership group of the NBA’s Rockets, led by hospitality magnate Tilman Fertitta, are deep in discussions about buying and relocating the franchise to Houston.

Houston was home to the WNBA’s first great dynasty, the Comets, who won the first four league titles from 1997 to 2000. The franchise was disbanded in ‘08, when owner Hilton Koch couldn’t find a buyer for the team. The league has reportedly expressed interest in bringing a new franchise to the market, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying that Houston and Fertitta are “up next” for a potential franchise, after the current wave of expansion. The Valkyries began play in 2025 and will be joined by the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo in ‘26, and new expansion teams in Cleveland (‘28), Detroit (‘29) and Philadelphia (‘30) over the next few years.

Rosenberg: Relocate the Sun? The WNBA Needs to Start Thinking Bigger

ESPN reports that the Rockets group previously offered $250 million for the Sun—matching the expansion fee paid by the Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia groups. They’ve since “improved its offer to a number the Sun might find acceptable,” sources tell Philippou and Shelburne.

Of course, by allowing the Rockets to jump in and buy the Sun, the WNBA is completely vacating New England and stripping Connecticut of its only major pro sports franchise, a move that others have been pushing back against—including others seeking to buy the franchise and keep it local.

A Celtics minority owner previously had an agreement to move the Sun to Boston

Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca’s PagsGroup agreed to purchase the Sun from the Mohegan tribe, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reported in August, for what would have been a record for $325 million. Pagliuca was set to build the franchise a $100 million practice facility, the lack of which has been a major sticking point for the team as currently constituted in Uncasville, Conn.

With a Boston move, the Sun would become tenants of the Celtics’ home arena, TD Garden.

The move was not cut and dry, however, as any relocation requires approval by the league's Board of Governors. Because Boston had not applied for one of the new franchises that had recently been awarded, as Houston had, the league is reticent to let the city cut the line.

"As part of our most recent expansion process, in which three new franchises were awarded to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on June 30, 2025, nine additional cities also applied for WNBA teams and remain under active consideration,” a WNBA statement read. “No groups from Boston applied for a team at that time and those other cities remain under consideration based on the extensive work they did as part of the expansion process and currently have priority over Boston.”

And Pagliuca’s Boston group was not even the most local option for a potential Sun sale.

Ex-Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry sought to keep the Sun in Connecticut, with help from the state

Soon after reports of the PagsGroup attempt to buy the franchise emerged, Marc Lasry, a West Hartford, Conn. native who co-owned the Bucks from 2014 to ‘23, reporteldy led a group seeking to move the Sun to Hartford. The Lasry group had reportedly matched the Pagliuca’s $325 million bid, with the state set to foot the bill for a $100 million practice facility in the Hartford area, according to an August report by New Haven Register.

As is the case with Boston, however, the WNBA is reportedly holding a hardline on relocation out of Uncasville being reserved for teams that applied for expansion franchises, even if that relocation is within the state, just 45 minutes to the northwest in its capital. Hartford mayor Arunan Arulampalam said that the idea of Hartford applying for a team with the Sun still at Mohegan makes no sense as a concept, and that the situation makes clear that the WNBA intends to take the franchise from Connecticut.

"Obviously Hartford wouldn't go for an expansion team while the Sun is still playing in Connecticut," Arulampalam told CT Insider in August. "What they're saying is that they want to steal a WNBA team from Connecticut and send them somewhere else."

He would go on to cite a similar example in the NFL, in which Cleveland sued over the Browns’ move to Baltimore in the mid-1990s—a situation that was ultimately resolved by the league awarding Cleveland a new expansion Browns franchise.

“We're going to try the best we can to appeal to the good graces of the league,” Arulampalam said. “But we in Connecticut are really proud of women's basketball and don’t like being pushed around.”

Given the advanced talks between the Mohegan tribe and the Rockets owners, the WNBA seems unfazed by the appeals out of Connecticut.

In a September CNBC interview, Lasry admitted his bid was facing an uphill battle.

“I grew up in Hartford, and the team right now is in an area of Connecticut that's much smaller,” he said. “And sort of the idea was, look, there's no professional teams in Connecticut. I know [Gov. Ned Lamont] pretty well and thought this would be fun and interesting for the state to try to keep a team there. But move it, I think, to Hartford—I don't think that's going to work."

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