The WNBA and NBA board of governors unanimously approved the sale and relocation of the Connecticut Sun to Houston on Wednesday, clearing the way for the franchise to leave Connecticut ahead of the 2027 campaign.
The move hands control of the Sun from the Mohegan Tribe to Houston Rockets owner Tilman J. Fertitta, whose agreement with the team was first announced in March after initially reported substantive talks in December. The sale is expected to close soon.
The Sun will finish the 2026 season in Connecticut, giving the franchise one last year in the state it has called home since 2003. That season will include two games at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford and one at TD Garden in Boston, a rare nod to a regional fan base that has followed the team beyond Uncasville.
Jen Rizzotti said she wants the staff and players focused on that final season rather than the relocation. “I think, first and foremost, I want our staff and players to just be able to focus on this season and being present for the 2026 last season in Connecticut,” she said. “I think our fans deserve that.”
Rizzotti also said the organization is trying to keep the transition orderly while the franchise still has a year to play in Connecticut. “As far as the move, we'll digest that when the time comes after the season,” she said, adding that Houston personnel had already begun some basic collaboration with Sun staff. “It's just been kind of basic introduction and a little bit of questioning and diligence as it relates to the business operations of the team,” she said.
Fertitta, who has owned the Rockets since 2017, becomes the latest NBA owner to acquire a WNBA team. sources said in March that the sale was set to close at $300 million, which would be a record for a WNBA team, and that the deal did not include a relocation fee.
The Sun’s sale also lands as the league expands under NBA ownership. The WNBA’s three upcoming expansion teams are Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, and all three also have NBA ownership. That makes Houston part of a broader shift in how the league is being financed and operated.
For Connecticut, the announcement closes one era and starts another. The Mohegan Tribe bought and relocated the then-Orlando Miracle to Uncasville in 2003, becoming the WNBA’s first non-NBA owners and the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team. After more than two decades, the franchise now heads toward its last season in Connecticut before moving to Houston.
Rizzotti said the team would keep its attention on the year ahead, not the one after that. She said employees who want to move to Houston will be welcomed to do so, and that the franchise has already started only limited planning with its new ownership. “Obviously, there's a lot of positive repercussions of being associated with a team that has the kind of resources and infrastructure that Houston has, and I think that's a positive for our players and our basketball staff as they move into the future, especially with this new CBA,” she said.
The league has approved the relocation, the ownership has been set, and the countdown has started. What remains is whether Connecticut’s final season produces the kind of farewell that matches the weight of a franchise that helped define the WNBA outside the NBA umbrella.
