So shortsighted.
Instead of capitalizing on the tidal wave of growth of women’s sports in Boston — hello Legacy FC and Fleet — the longest-standing women’s professional sports league in operation willingly shut itself out of the New England market.
‘Sad about it’: WNBA fans in Boston lament Connecticut Sun’s relocation to Houston
Had they been smart, the farewell party that took over Canal Street Tuesday would have doubled as a welcome party. Instead, the feeling around the Sun’s third trip north had none of the buzz or excitement of the last two years. From the 2024 game that set all sorts of attendance and ratings records, to the 2025 bonanza that saw Indiana’s Caitlin Clark make a rare Hub appearance, Boston had proven its women’s basketball bona fides, filling every seat and cheering every basket.
Yet here we were on Tuesday, with large sections of the Garden’s mezzanine completely empty, despite second-hand ticket brokers getting less than $50 before tipoff. The fact that the Sun and the visiting LA Sparks were well under .500, or that recognizable stars like Brittney Griner, Cameron Brink, and Aaliyah Edwards weren’t playing, certainly didn’t help matters. But if local fans knew they were heading downtown to see a team that would become their own next year, they would have shown up. They always have.
“I think there was that initial disappointment because it felt like that was the direction it was going, and then it was kind of pulled out from underneath them,” Sun president Jen Rizzotti said on Canal Street before the game, standing not far from a table filled with blank cards, pens, and a mailbox.
It was for fans who wanted to write love letters to the Sun and let them know how much they’d miss them. No one understands that melancholy better than Rizzotti, a native daughter of Connecticut who memorably led UConn to an undefeated national championship in 1995 and who spent her best years coaching in the state.
She hasn’t quite given up hope. “The fact that we’re coming up here and we’re gonna have another full arena shows that the fans are gonna show up and care about the WNBA regardless,” she said. “I hope one day we’ll be back here celebrating the WNBA in New England.”
But by then, the moment will have passed.
As Sun center Olivia Nelson-Ododa put it, “Clearly, the support is here. The support is here for women’s sports in general . . . so I definitely think it could be a potential expansion team or expansion opportunity here, just from the turnout that we get here and the support.”
Yet the Sun are heading to Houston, leaving Boston fans to turn elsewhere to spend their time and money. The WNBA, if it does attempt a future return, will have to start all over again to seize the hearts and minds of the locals.
So no, there was no welcome party on Canal Street, no simmering excitement for the prospect of adding another professional team to the city. Instead, we got a sad farewell party, where yes, the Sun did their best to make it positive, leaning into a bittersweet marketing campaign that officially dubbed this “the Sunset season.”
With 10 remaining games, four of them at Mohegan Sun Arena, Rizzotti explained their intention to celebrate the franchise’s deep, rich ties to a state that has long proven itself the center of the women’s basketball universe.
“When we found out we were getting sold, we kind of talked a lot about how to prepare the messaging,” she said. “We wanted it to still feel positive, even though we knew there would be a lot of people disappointed. And sunsets are beautiful, right? And they can stand for a lot.
“They can stand for the things that you got to enjoy along the way, throughout the journey, and the fact that we can be our brightest before the sun goes down. And we can celebrate the legacy that we’re leaving, and all the good things that we have done for New England and in our New England community. And we want to make sure we’re celebrating that and reminding people, hey, this is it. This is your last chance to see the Connecticut Sun before we leave.
“The sunset felt appropriate.”
If the WNBA brass had done this right, the Connecticut sunset would have bled directly into a Boston sunrise. But they blew the layup, and as a result, could lose Boston forever.
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.
