After 23 years in Connecticut as the WNBA’s first non-NBA owned team, the Sun are set to be sold and moved to Houston.
According to multiple reports, the Fertitta family, who own the Houston Rockets, are buying the Sun from the Mohegan Tribe for a record-breaking $300 million. Houston-based media outlet Paper City Mag was first to report on the sale, adding that the move very well signals the return of the iconic Houston Comets franchise.
The Sun have not yet responded to a request for comment, but an announcement is expected to be made Monday. ESPN reported the sale and move — which will not come with a relocation fee — is currently pending as it waits for approval from the league’s Board of Governors.
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The reported sale would bring an end to a contentious process that played out over the last several months. Last August, The Mohegan Tribe had agreed to an offer from Steve Pagliuca, an outgoing Boston Celtics minority owner, to sell the team for a record-breaking $325 million. But the WNBA and its Board of Governors wouldn’t approve the deal.
“Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” a league statement read. “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. 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. Celtics’ prospective owner Bill Chisholm has also reached out to the league office and asked that Boston receive strong consideration for a WNBA franchise at the appropriate time.”
The Mohegan Tribe also had another offer to keep the team in Connecticut, to play in nearby Hartford. Former Milwaukee Bucks minority owner Marc Lasry had offered to match that $325 million to keep the team in the state. The WNBA and its Board of Governors ultimately rejected that offer as well.
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Back in September, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal warned that the WNBA’s interference in proposals to keep the team either in the state or New England could violate federal antitrust laws.
“Any further attempts by the WNBA to use its considerable governance and market power over the Connecticut Sun to limit or dictate negotiations with the state of Connecticut could be a unreasonable restraint of trade and interference with the market that would violate federal antitrust laws,” Blumenthal wrote. “As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over antitrust matters, I am closely monitoring the WNBA’s actions and will demand investigations and enforcement actions from the appropriate federal authorities if it takes any step to hinder or constrain Connecticut’s negotiations.”
In response to the recent reports, Blumenthal posted on X, “WNBA put a full court press on blocking the Sun from staying in CT—deeply harmful to fans that live & breathe basketball. DOJ should investigate & stop such anticompetitive interference.”
The news has outraged fans, many of whom brought signs last season urging to “Keep the Sun in CT” and have continued to express their disappointment from the league in taking professional women’s basketball out of New England.
Assuming the news is confirmed, the Sun will play their last season at Mohegan Sun Arena in 2026 before moving to Houston for the 2027 season. At the Boston Legacy FC’s Women in Sports Day fanfest, the Sun were present and had table where they were handing out 2026 seasons schedules and giveaways including Sun-branded lanyards, headbands and giveaways.
The Sun franchise was originally founded as the Orlando Miracle in a 1999 league expansion, but that team the Tribe originally back in 2003 for $10 million and relocated to Uncasville, Connecticut. Since the move, the Sun made the playoffs 18 times and reached four WNBA Finals, though they have yet to win a WNBA championship.
Houston had previously lost the bid for an expansion team last July, when the WNBA awarded new teams to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia for a then-record $250 million expansion fee. The Comets had been an inaugural member of the WNBA and won the league championship in each of the first four WNBA seasons (1997-2000), but the franchise folded in 2008 amid ownership troubles.
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