- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,151,758
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
The Sun is setting in Connecticut.
Chris Baldwin of Paper City Mag reported late Friday afternoon that the Fertitta family purchased the Connecticut Sun. ESPN’s Alexa Philippou confirmed the news and added that her sources said the sale was for $300 million.
The Sun will play a final season in Uncasville in 2026 before moving to Houston.
The move marks a return to Houston by the WNBA after the Comets, one of the league’s original teams, played there from 1997-2008.
Philippou and Ramona Shelburne reported in December that the Fertitta family, which also owns the Houston Rockets were in “substantive talks” with the WNBA to purchase the team.
Connecticut became the Sun’s home in 2003 when the Mohegan Tribe purchased and relocated the team from Orlando.
The sale of the team has been a topic for close to a year. In August, Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca confirmed that he attempted to buy the Sun and relocate the team to Boston.
Pagliuca reached a deal with the Mohegan Tribe worth $325 million for the team plus an additional $100 million to move the team and put together new training facilities.
Former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry matched Pagliuca’s $325 million offer and was willing to keep the team in Connecticut, but move the franchise from Uncasville to Hartford, according to CT Insider.
The WNBA blocked Pagliuca’s deal from progressing, saying the WNBA Board of Governors decides on when and where a team can relocate, not the individual teams.
Houston was considered the team’s “preferred landing spot.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert made clear that she wanted a team in Houston and said that the city was “up next when it comes to the timeline for evaluating bids.”
As rumors swirled last year, Sun players did their best to focus on the season, instead of the potential sale and relocation of the team.
“Everyone in the front office of the Sun has been very transparent about the process and trying to tell us everything that they possibly can,” Sun guard Marina Mabrey said after an early August game.
“But at the end of the day, this is out of our control and there’s so many other decisions to be made higher up within the WNBA that for us, we kind of just wait until a final decision is made and we just stay within the process of what we’re doing with the season because at the end of the day, this 2025 season is not going to be any different.”
The league is in the midst of a packed six weeks after the WNBA and the players’ union agreed to a new and historic CBA earlier this month.
The league will host an expansion draft April 3 for its newest teams in Portland and Toronto. The standard WNBA draft will take place April 13 and the free agency period is expected to take place in early April as well.
The Sun will play a preseason game at Toronto on April 29, before they host a preseason game with the New York Liberty on May 3.
The Sun’s final home opener at Mohegan Sun will take place on May 10 as the team hosts the Seattle Storm at 1 p.m.
Last year, Connecticut was one of the worst teams in the league. The Sun went 11-33, finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference. Only the Chicago Sky and the Dallas Wings had a worse win percentage.
Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Continue reading...
