The WNBA’s Connecticut Sun franchise ends its Connecticut run on September 24th.
The owners of the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Connecticut Sun franchise will shut down their business on September 24th. The moving vans will head to the arena and take out all of the franchise’s possessions and drive them to the franchise’s new home in Houston, Texas. Connecticut lost two pro sports franchises in 2026. The WNBA team and the American Hockey League’s Bridgeport Islanders franchise with that business going to Hamilton, Ontario. Connecticut has been a difficult spot for pro sports franchises to succeed. The University of Connecticut has big time men’s and women’s basketball programs. Quinnipiac University has a big time hockey program.
The Hartford Yard Goats baseball franchise is a mid-level Double A team and is Connecticut’s only minor league baseball club. Hartford had a Major League Baseball team, 150 years ago. The Dark Blues franchise of the National League lasted one season. The owner Morgan Bulkeley moved his team to Brooklyn after the 1876 season. Connecticut politicians thought Robert Kraft was going to move his National Football League New England Patriots franchise to Hartford but Kraft pulled out of a 1998 agreement which would have seen the state build a venue for his business on April 30th, 1999 because there was a problem with the stadium’s construction timeline. Massachusetts lawmakers cut a deal with him to stay in Foxboro. The National Hockey League’s Hartford Whalers franchise moved to Carolina in 1997 after the owner Peter Karmanos failed to get public funding for a new Hartford arena. The ownership for a low-level Major League Soccer franchise was hoping for state funding to build a Bridgeport venue but earlier this year, the state said no. The pro sports business in Connecticut continues to fail.
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