The WNBA approved the Connecticut Sun's relocation to Houston following the 2026 season, ending a 24-year run in Uncasville and adding a third Texas franchise to a league that now values its teams at $460 million on average. The Sun become the first WNBA franchise to relocate in a decade, following the Tulsa Shock's move to Dallas in 2016.
The timing is structural. The league expanded to 15 teams this cycle, adding Golden State in 2025 and Toronto in 2026. Connecticut ownership—Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, operator of the Mohegan Sun casino—has long worked a split-revenue model that kept the franchise profitable in a 10,061-capacity arena but failed to scale when peer franchises started drawing tech money and institutional capital. Golden State's Valkyries are now worth $1 billion after one season, per CNBC's May 2026 valuations. The Sun, in a market ranked 30th nationally by population, faced a ceiling that Houston—fourth-largest metro, 7.5 million people, no WNBA team since the Comets folded in 2008—does not.
Houston already has the Dallas Wings 240 miles north and the San Antonio Stars' intellectual property sitting dormant since 2018, when that franchise moved to Las Vegas and became the Aces. The new Sun ownership group, expected to be announced by July, will inherit a roster led by DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas, both over 35, both unrestricted after 2027. The front office stays in Connecticut through the end of 2026; the coaching staff and player-development infrastructure move to Houston for the 2027 season. No stadium deal is public yet, but the city has two venues that fit: Toyota Center, home to the Rockets, seats 18,055 for basketball; Rice University's Tudor Fieldhouse seats 5,750 and was renovated in 2024. The league prefers controlled environments over rental deals, which means Rice is the likely opening-night venue while a permanent home is negotiated.
The departure leaves the Eastern Conference with seven teams and the Western Conference with eight, forcing a scheduling rebalance that the league office has been modeling since February. Connecticut's local media deal with NBC Sports Boston expires after 2026 and will not be renewed; Houston's media landscape includes AT&T SportsNet Southwest, which already carries the Rockets and Astros and has been in talks with WNBA leadership since the Warriors announced the Valkyries in 2023. The Sun averaged 6,200 fans per game in 2025, fifth-lowest in the league, while the Valkyries averaged 11,200 in their inaugural season. The gap is not attendance—it's sponsorship yield. Golden State signed 12 founding partners before tipoff, including Rakuten, Google, and Kaiser Permanente. Connecticut's top sponsor, Mohegan Sun itself, was also the landlord.
Houston becomes the WNBA's third Texas market after Dallas and the dormant San Antonio intellectual property. The Wings, owned by Mark Yancey and Bill Cameron since 2011, have drawn 7,800 fans per game at College Park Center in Arlington, a venue they share with UT Arlington. Texas is now the only state with multiple active WNBA franchises, a distinction that reflects population growth but also the league's tilt toward Sun Belt metros where corporate sponsorship pools are growing faster than Northeastern legacy markets. The Sun's departure follows the New York Liberty's sale to Joe Tsai for $85 million in 2019, a price that now looks like a rounding error. The Liberty are worth $760 million in CNBC's 2026 valuation, second only to Golden State, because Brooklyn's Barclays Center seats 17,732 and the sponsorship base includes Glossier, Bumble, and Tidal.
The Houston franchise will inherit the Sun's two WNBA championships (2004, 2005 as the Orlando Miracle's successor) and four Finals appearances, but not the name. The league owns all WNBA trademarks; Connecticut's "Sun" branding reverts to the league office and may be auctioned to future expansion bidders. Houston's new ownership group has until September 2026 to file branding and naming materials with the league office. The Comets' name and history remain controlled by the league after that franchise folded in 2008 following four consecutive championships from 1997 to 2000. Whether the new ownership pursues that legacy or starts fresh will signal how much they value nostalgia versus building a clean cap table.
Franchise relocation in the WNBA has historically been a function of undercapitalization—Tulsa to Dallas, San Antonio to Las Vegas, Orlando to Connecticut in 2003—but this move is different. Mohegan Gaming is solvent; they simply chose not to outbid the Houston market's upside. The league's board of governors approved the move 8-3, with dissent coming from legacy Eastern markets that worry about schedule density and travel costs once the league expands further into West Coast and international markets. Toronto tipped off its inaugural season in April 2026, and the league has active expansion discussions with San Francisco (separate from the Warriors' Valkyries, targeting a second Bay Area franchise) and Philadelphia. Connecticut's exit clears one board seat for Houston and resets the league's geographic math.
Watch for the Houston ownership announcement by early July and a stadium deal by September. Coaching hires begin immediately after the 2026 Finals in October. The Sun's current head coach, Stephanie White, has one year left on her contract and can either follow the franchise or negotiate an exit. Her agent, Allison Galer of Wasserman, represents six active WNBA coaches and will use White's leverage to set the market for relocation bonuses. The Sun's local NBC Sports Boston deal expires December 31, 2026, which gives the Houston ownership group six months to negotiate a new regional sports network package before the 2027 season opener in May.