We – and virtually everyone else – within the WNBA sphere has seen the news about the Connecticut Sun’s impending relocation to Houston and reviving the Comets.
We have seen the reports about how not only is Houston Rockets boss Tilman Fertitta purchasing the Sun at a discount ($300 million as opposed to the $325 million that was offered by owners pledging to keep the franchise in New England), but Fertitta did not have to pay a relocation fee.
We have even seen the report that suggested that the two New England bids would have had a chance to keep the Sun in Connecticut but were denied because of their relocation intentions.
We have seen everything and we know it will take some time for fans in both New England and southeast Texas to process everything, but we wanted to look at this from both perspectives.
First – from that of a Sun fan. It is not easy losing a team. This is not the first time that Connecticut has seen a popular sports franchise ripped from that community via relocation. That area still remembers when the NHL’s Hartford Whalers were relocated to Raleigh to become the Carolina Hurricanes. Seeing the Canes every now and then honor Whalers history has to bring tears to the eyes of many a hockey fan in southern New England.
In fact – Sun fans know now what it is like to be on both sides of the relocation spectrum. Remember, the Sun originally were the Orlando Miracle before they moved up north to become the Connecticut Sun.
The elation that many in Connecticut felt when they received that franchise from central Florida has to be canceled out by the news that the 2026 season will indeed be the final one for the Sun. The Sun gave Connecticut its most notable professional sports presence since the Whalers. That will only be the case for a few more months.
We are also very cognizant of simply how this whole process unfolded. We vividly remember how Steve Pagliuca bid $325 million to not only relocate the franchise to Boston but how he was planning on spending significant money on a practice facility for the relocated franchise. We remember how Pagliuca’s bid had significant backing from state governments in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
We vividly remember how Marc Lasry – who used to be part-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks – matched Pagliuca’s bid of $325 million with plans to keeping the team in Connecticut but relocating them to Hartford. Both bids were more than what Fertitta shelled out in the end.
We also vividly remember how the WNBA had teased Boston fans with one game a year featuring the Sun at TD Garden – the home court of the Boston Celtics and home ice of the Boston Bruins. Those games were well-attended – an indication of how ready Boston was for a WNBA franchise.
This process was always heavily tilted in Houston’s favor at the expense of a community that has been one of the staunchest supporters of women’s basketball. In many ways, New England supported women’s basketball before it became cool to support women’s basketball. In addition, the Connecticut Sun played a major role in proving to the public at large that a WNBA team can be profitable.
This had to be extremely difficult for the Mohegan Tribe. It knew because of tribal bylaws that they could only invest so much money into a professional sports franchise compared to the money a Marc Davis, Mat Ishbia or a Clara Wu Tsai could put up. The Tribe had their preferred buyers – the higher money bids of either Boston (Pagliuca) or Hartford (Lasry).
There are more dollars than ever in today’s WNBA – and the Mohegan Tribe was simply priced out. That, to say the least, is not a good look for a supposedly progressive WNBA to effectively price out the lone Native American ownership group in sports in favor of an NBA owner whose political ties are – questionable (to say the least).
In a lot of ways, the writing was on the wall for the Sun since the conclusion of the 2024 season when Connecticut lost that year in the semifinals to the Minnesota Lynx. In many ways, 2024 felt like a last gasp for a franchise that has yet to claim a WNBA championship.
It felt like the Sun was setting as soon as Connecticut was eliminated from those playoffs. Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix Mercury), DeWanna Bonner (Indiana Fever then Mercury), Brionna Jones (Atlanta Dream), DiJonai Carrington (Dallas Wings then Lynx) leaving New England for greener pastures all in the same free agency period was no accident. Stephanie White, a former All-Star coach and Coach of the Year, leaving for the Indiana Fever to coach Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell was no accident.
Darius Taylor leaving to take a job at Texas A&M – where his wife, Joni, is head coach – was certainly no accident. That saying is true – where there is smoke, there is fire. This did not feel like the typical rebuilding process many teams undergo after their championship window closes. What was going on with the Connecticut Sun felt like something…more.
This franchise has had several near misses. One of those recently occurred in 2019 when the Sun lost in the Finals to the Washington Mystics where Elena Delle Donne won her first championship. Another was in 2022 when the Sun lost to the Las Vegas Aces in what would be the first of (currently) three championships for A’ja Wilson.
On the court, those losses had to feel more crushing for the Sun and its fans. They saw Delle Donne – recently announced as an inductee into this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame class – win its first. They saw Wilson – a future first-ballot Hall of Famer (both Springfield and Knoxville) – win her first. They even saw a first championship for Jonquel Jones at the New York Liberty after proudly wearing a Connecticut uniform for many years.
They never saw a first championship for the Sun.
There is a school of thought that says with the current free agent period looming that a laundry list of free agents will sign with Connecticut because of the impending move to Houston. If the history of professional sports has taught us anything it is that teams that relocate typically do not open up the checkbook until after they have made the move.
If the history of professional sports has taught us something else, it is that it takes a long time for cities to gain their teams back. Even though 2031 has been thrown out as a possible year where Boston could be the site of an expansion franchise, that is nowhere near a guarantee.
Look at the NBA. Recently, an initial vote was given by its Board of Governors to explore bids for expansion franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle. The Seattle Supersonics relocated to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder in 2008. In fact, an effort by a Bay Area-based hedge fund owner by the name of Chris Hansen to purchase the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle in 2011 was thwarted by the league.
In fact, 2008 was the same year the Comets folded. Two decades later, the WNBA and NBA appear poised to resurrect both the Comets and the Sonics in virtually the same time period. Remember that Cathy Engelbert’s goal was an 18-team WNBA. She is getting that by virtue of the upcoming expansion franchises in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia (all under NBA team ownership, by the way).
By the way, as much as we talk about the legacies of great players like Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, we need to talk about the legacies of commissioners. They may not always display it but they are very cognizant of their respective legacies. When Engelbert bestowed an expansion franchise on Toronto, that was a legacy play.
The resurrection of the Comets is also a legacy play for Engelbert – as was the resurrection of the Portland Fire. The problem is that the Comets coming back is occurring at the expense of another community’s franchise. New Englanders likely feel the same way about Englebert that many Seattleites felt about the late David Stern for many years after the controversial relocation of the Sonics.
Ask many a WNBA fan and they would have preferred the Comets return via expansion. Why couldn’t Fertitta put up an expansion bid? It is not like he is hurting for money.
Our thoughts are with Connecticut fans during this difficult time. Kevin Durant – currently a Houston Rocket – recently made comments saying that fans there will be okay because of UConn.
The thing is they had UConn before they had the Sun. Anyone who knows anything about the allegiance of Connecticut sports fans knows they can be split down the middle between the teams that play in either New York or Boston. The Sun – similar to the Whalers – were all theirs and that status is being taken away from them because of the WNBA’s sketchy process in how it has gone about this Sun sale.
New England deserves better – and if there is talk about even more expansion past Philly in 2030 it must be made sure that Boston is at the top of the list. In fact, in a perfect world, a team like the Celtics would purchase the Sun’s history, logo, record, etc. to ensure they stay in New England until that new franchise occurs. Simply put, New England deserves better and it must be seen that their calls for another franchise are heeded.
A sad reality is that this final season for the Sun – which the franchise is already calling its “Sunset Season” will also likely be a tanking season for Connecticut. There is no incentive for the Sun to put a winner on that Mohegan Sun Arena court for its final campaign in Uncasville.
Look who will likely be at the top of the draft board – Juju Watkins. Yep – that Juju Watkins. Also, with Paige Bueckers in Dallas, what better way for the WNBA to spice up its new Lone Star State rivalry than to have two names that will be faces of the W for the next 15-20 years playing in the same state.
That final regular season game at Mohegan Sun Arena between the Sun and Toronto Tempo on September 24 likely will not have a dry eye anywhere in that stadium at its conclusion.
Of course, there are two sides to this relocation conundrum. The Houston side is, of course, the other.
If there is any city that deserves the WNBA, it is Houston. Clutch City was part of the groundwork that laid the foundation for the WNBA as it is today. The four championships that were won by the Comets from 1997-2000 laid the slab for the current mansion that is today’s W.
Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson are three names that not only live in WNBA lore or Houston sports lore, but the lore of sports period. Those three names are why even nearly three decades later there is still an extremely passionate fanbase for women’s sports in Houston.
As was the case when the Golden State Valkyries were announced as an expansion franchise, the Rockets are wasting no time re-introducing Houston fans to the Comets. There was a reason as to why the Comets’ big three were recently honored at a Rockets’ legends night at the Toyota Center.
Speaking of the Toyota Center, the original Comets did play its home games at that venue throughout the latter part of its history before the team folded. But its dynasty years took place not at the Toyota Center, but at the Compaq Center. That venue was retrofitted into Joel and Victoria Osteen’s Lakewood Church with the Comets and Rockets moving.
Acknowledging the WNBA’s past is every bit as embracing its future. It also does create another (organic) geographic rivalry within the WNBA’s ranks.
There is the revived I-5 rivalry set to take place between the Fire and the Seattle Storm. There is also the California rivalry that is budding between the Valkyries and Los Angeles Sparks. Now, there is the Comets and the Dallas Wings.
For years, the Wings got to claim that they are the lone WNBA franchise in Texas. Beginning in 2027, that will no longer be the case.
One can expect that the year 2026 will be a year-long infomercial plugging the impending return of the Comets. One can likely expect a significant Comets presence at upcoming Rockets games for the remainder of this season – as well as throughout the 2026-27 NBA season. The reborn Comets have yet to debut its new logo but we know by looking at its HouComets social media accounts that its color scheme will be virtually identical to that of the original Comets.
If the Comets debut its updated logo prior to when WNBA All-Star weekend takes place in Chicago, one can expect for said logo to be present just as the Valkyries logo was at 2024 All-Star weekend in Phoenix.
In this era of women’s sports getting the recognition that they deserve, we are having more of a broader discussion when it comes to sports dynasties. When we think about the 1990s and basketball, many fans will point to the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls and the six championships that they won.
Houston also had a basketball dynasty going on in its own right. While Jordan was away from the NBA to pursue other sports – notably golf and baseball – the Hakeem Olajuwon-led Rockets became the NBA’s team to beat. This was evidenced by the two championships the Rockets won when they did not have His Airness to worry about.
Those championships were, of course, followed by the four rings that were claimed by the Comets. Since the Comets folded, the Lynx have been the only WNBA team to match the Comets in terms of championships. This also must be mentioned alongside the reality that there is an object that is closer than it appears in the rear-view mirror of the Comets.
That object is the Aces which went on a miraculous run in the second half of the 2025 season to win its third championship in four years.
It has been brought to our attention that there are a few Houston fans that are already chirping on social media at Connecticut fans to rub salt in their wound. To say that this is not the right approach fans should be taking is an understatement.
The same way Sun fans are feeling right now about the upcoming loss of their team is exactly how Comets fans likely felt during those dark Toyota Center years that ultimately resulted in the folding of their team. We understand that the elation and excitement in Houston regarding the return of the Comets is palpable – as it should be. But rubbing salt in Connecticut’s wound is not a good look for, what we assume is, the vast minority of Houston fans.
After all, Houston back in the 1990s was in the same boat that Connecticut is in right now. Must we remind Houstonians of when the Oilers departed from H-Town and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to become the Titans?
Must we also remind Houstonians that the Titans still own rights to the Oilers copyright and intellectual property? So Houstonians that are pounding their chests at getting another area’s team need to tread lightly.
Of course, May 2027 will be the big occasion when the Comets’ first game back will likely be the place to be for any Houstonian. Which team should that first game be against?
One can make a case to say it should be against the Aces – old dynasty vs. new dynasty. One can make a case to say it should be against the Lynx – late 1990s dynasty vs. that of the 2010s. One can also say it should be against the Wings to immediately get that Lone Star State rivalry going.
One can also make a case to say it should be against one of the other original eight teams such as the New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks or Phoenix Mercury.
Speaking of championships, has any other Houston team had the sustained amount of success that the Comets did since their heyday of the late 1990s? The answer is no. The Houston Astros played in a World Series in 2005 but were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
The Astros won the 2017 World Series but that championship was tainted by a sign-stealing scandal. Houston then corrected that 2017 fault by winning a World Series in 2022.
So many questions regarding what this team will resemble when it returns to the court next year will certainly be answered over the ensuing several months.
This is a situation that involves two regions of the country that have contributed heavily to the growth of the W over the years. As the WNBA continues to amass more years, more attention will deservedly be paid to its history.
When one looks past the sketchy political connections of a man like Fertitta, one can see how great it is for the WNBA to make its triumphant return to Houston even it comes at the expense of a passionate basketball area such as New England.
To say that the WNBA has been on a rocket ship these past several years is an understatement. But Engelbert now has a problem and that is doing right by New England hoops aficionados.
