{"id":35005,"date":"2025-12-25T09:15:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/25\/in-2026-the-connecticut-sun-may-shine-bright-from-houston\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T09:15:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:15:54","slug":"in-2026-the-connecticut-sun-may-shine-bright-from-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/25\/in-2026-the-connecticut-sun-may-shine-bright-from-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2026, the Connecticut Sun May Shine Bright from Houston!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Connecticut Sun may be relocating to Houston in 2026, according to reports from ESPN&#8217;s Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelbourne. The Mohegan Tribe and the Houston Rockets ownership are engaged in &#8220;substantive negotiations&#8221; to sell the team, which would bring the franchise to Texas. These talks are described as promising, with the potential for improvements proposed by Tilman Fertitta and the Rockets&#8217; group. This move would mark the end of the Sun&#8217;s 22-year presence in Uncasville, which began when the team was the Orlando Miracle from 1999 to 2002.<\/p>\n<p>The Sun&#8217;s future in Connecticut has been uncertain for some time. Despite a competitive run featuring stars like DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas, the team entered a rebuilding phase in 2025, finishing with an 11-33 record. The Sun currently play at the Mohegan Sun Arena within the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort, a venue often criticized as one of the worst facilities in the WNBA. In July, the Mohegan Tribe agreed to sell the team to Steve Pagliuca, a former minority owner of the Boston Celtics, who intended to relocate the team to Boston.<\/p>\n<p>Houston has not had a WNBA team since the Comets dissolved in 2008. The Comets were the league\u2019s first team to win four championships, and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has expressed strong interest in reestablishing a presence in Houston. Some insiders believe this desire to partner with Fertitta may have influenced the decision to block the sale of the Sun to Pagliuca.<\/p>\n<p>Fan Take: This potential move is significant for WNBA fans as it could revitalize the league\u2019s presence in a major basketball city like Houston, reconnecting with a market that historically embraced the Comets. It also signals ongoing shifts in the league\u2019s growth strategy, emphasizing new ownership and improved facilities to enhance the overall fan and player experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Connecticut Sun may be relocating to Houston in 2026, according to reports from ESPN&#8217;s Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelbourne. The Mohegan Tribe and the Houston Rockets ownership are engaged in &#8220;substantive negotiations&#8221; to sell the team, which would bring the franchise to Texas. These talks are described as promising, with the potential for improvements [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491],"tags":[39,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-35005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}