After over 20 years in Uncasville, the Connecticut Solar have reportedly been offered to the Houston-based Fertitta household.
The Solar has reportedly set on WNBA basketball in Connecticut.
Per Chris Baldwin of PaperCity Journal, the Connecticut Solar WNBA franchise has been offered by the Mohegan Tribe to the Houston-based Fertitta household, which plans to maneuver them to Area Metropolis within the identify of resurrecting the Comets in time for the 2027 season. Alexa Philippou of ESPN additional reported the sale is for $300 million, which might be a document buy for a WNBA membership.
The Solar will play yet another season at Mohegan Solar Enviornment in Uncasville, the place it has been stationed underneath the tribe since 2003. The franchise, which entered the league with the Minnesota Lynx in 1999, was initially stationed in Central Florida and referred to as the Orlando Miracle and operated underneath the possession of the DeVos household, which additionally has the NBA’s Orlando Magic in its portfolio.
The Solar Will not Be Transport As much as Boston
Promoting to the Fertittas, who additionally personal the NBA’s Houston Rockets, for $300 million has garnered some scrutiny: the Solar reportedly had a $325 million cope with Boston Celtics minority proprietor Stephen Pagliuca in place, one which was stated to have saved the staff within the New England space. The Solar beforehand performed a number of high-profile video games on the Celtics‘ dwelling of TD Backyard in Beantown.
Nonetheless, the WNBA shut down the deal, citing the notion that „relocation choices are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and never by particular person groups“ and opted to provide relocation precedence to teams that beforehand sought enlargement bids. The Fertittas, led by United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino Tilman, beforehand made an try at such an endeavor however misplaced out to Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, who will respectively start play in 2028, 2029, and 2030. That trio will be part of 2025 entrant Golden State and the incumbent dozen two new franchises, the Portland Hearth and Toronto Tempo, will tip off on this coming marketing campaign.
Positioned simply over 30 miles from the College of Connecticut’s basketball manufacturing facility in Storrs, Uncasville hosted one of many WNBA’s extra constant franchise over the past 20 years: although it has but to safe a championship, Connecticut has posted the second-best win share within the WNBA since 2003 behind solely the four-time champion Minnesota Lynx.
The franchise has hosted alumnae from Storrs like Tina Charles and all-time franchise scoring chief Nykesha Gross sales. The Solar has appeared in 4 editions of the WNBA Finals (2004, 2005, 2019, 2022) and holds the bittersweet document of most championship appearances with out a title.
Comets Come Streaking Again
This won’t be the WNBA’s first rodeo in Houston, because the Comets have been one of many eight authentic franchises to take the ground in the course of the league’s debut season in 1997. Below the watch of head coach Van Chancellor, the Comets gained every of the primary 4 WNBA championships behind the efforts of legends like Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and the late Kim Perrot.
By 2007, the Comets had misplaced a little bit of their luster, having gone six years with out a Finals look. Then-Rockets proprietor Leslie Alexander put the staff up on the market and it will definitely went to native celeb/furnishings mogul Hilton Koch.
With Chancellor resigning and the staff’s authentic stars both departing (aside from Thompson, who remained stationed with the Comets by means of the staff’s total tenure) or growing old, Houston struggled to stay aggressive and keep its fanbase. The separation from their NBA sibling led them to maneuver out of Toyota Heart and into the cramped Reliant Enviornment (now NRG Enviornment, setting about 10,000 lower than their prior lodgings), the place it struggled to maintain up on and off the ground.
The league ultimately took management of the Comets franchise and disbanded it in 2008 after failing to discover a new purchaser. Thompson, Matee Ajavon, Sancho Lyttle, Michelle Snow, and present Solar affiliate head coach Roneeka Hodges have been a part of the ultimate staff and a number of other of them discovered new WNBA postings after the shutdown.
Geno on the Solar sale: „The individuals at Mohegan Solar, they stepped up after they have been wanted & introduced a staff to Connecticut, as Conn. deserves to have a staff b/c we’re a confirmed [place] the place individuals would help girls’s basketball. Now [with them] shifting, I believe it leaves a void.“
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) March 28, 2026
Solar-set Begins This Spring
Whereas many clamored for the Comets‘ return on this wave of WNBA enlargement, these pleading probably didn’t want to see the return come at the price of the Solar, which had lengthy carried the torch for skilled girls’s basketball in New England. The Solar have been additionally the lone main league staff among the many 4 main North American sports activities (basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey) stationed within the Structure State, which beforehand misplaced the NHL’s Hartford Whalers to Raleigh, N.C. shortly earlier than the WNBA’s aforementioned debut.
Longtime UConn girls’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma acknowledged the Solar’s departure and its potential aftershocks following his squad’s newest March Insanity triumph, a 63-42 shellacking of North Carolina in considered one of Fort Price’s regional semifinals.
„The individuals at Mohegan Solar, they stepped up after they have been wanted,“ Auriemma stated, per Philippou. „[They] introduced a staff to Connecticut, as Connecticut deserves to have a staff as a result of we’re a confirmed [place] the place individuals would help girls’s basketball. Now [with them] shifting, I believe it leaves a void.“
Having misplaced its head coach (Stephanie White) and practically 90 % of its scoring from a 28-win staff (together with Bonner, Veronica Burton, DiJonai Carrington, Brionna Jones, and Alyssa Thomas), the Solar struggled within the first 12 months of a rebuilding venture, putting eleventh amongst 13 groups at 11-33. The staff did benefit from the return of Charles to the fold, in addition to the antics of first-round picks Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers, in addition to 2024 draftee Leila Lacan, who appeared on the Related Press‘ All-Rookie squad.
Led by second-year coach Rachid Meziane, the Solar owns the twelfth and fifteenth picks of the upcoming WNBA Draft in New York (April 13) . Their apparently remaining Connecticut hours start on Might 8 in opposition to the New York Liberty and the final dwelling opener at Mohegan Solar Enviornment comes in opposition to the Seattle Storm two days later.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
