The Connecticut Sun sale announcement “brings a shutter of disappointment to women’s basketball fans across the state and the rest of New England,” according to Maggie Vanoni of the NEW HAVEN REGISTER. In 2027, the Sun will “likely be relocated” to Houston, renamed and rebranded. There will be “no WNBA presence in Connecticut nor anywhere in New England.” UConn women’s basketball G Caroline Ducharme grew up in Milton, Mass., watching the UConn women’s basketball team and the Sun. Ducharme said, “I’m sure it’s going to be beneficial, but we’re sad to see it go.” UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said, “Unfortunately, that’s the world, right now.” He noted NBA owners at one point “owned everything, and it started to slip away. … Now, pretty much, the majority of the teams that are coming in are going to be sort of kind of NBA centric, and that’s where the money is.” Auriemma added, “And the players want a lot of money, and so the league is selling franchises for a lot of money.” Auriemma said that he had conversations with Sun President Jen Rizzotti. He added that it is “hard to get free agents” to come to Connecticut. Ducharme said that she was “hoping the Sun would move to Boston." UConn G Allie Ziebell and Ducharme both said it is “sad” that there will not be any more local access to the WNBA (NEW HAVEN REGISTER, 3/28).
STRUGGLING SPORTS: In New Haven, John Breunig wrote Connecticut is branded as the “Basketball Capital of the World,” but we are “stuck in the minors when it comes to hosting professional sports.” Hartford Whalers NHL games in the early 1990s sometimes drew “fewer than 6,000 fans to the Civic Center.” The Bridgeport Islanders ranked 24th out of the league’s 32 teams in attendance standings. Both hockey teams later left their Connecticut homes, the former for Raleigh, N.C., and the latter for Hamilton, Ont. The Bridgeport Bluefish baseball team had a “promising start” in 1998 but were “in the cellar in league attendance by their final season” in 2017, with an average of “2,984 fans per game.” The Connecticut Tennis Center Stadium’s 15,000 seats made it the third largest outdoor tennis stadium in the U.S, but a smaller stadium could have “created electricity.” Connecticut is a “cautionary tale that half-full and half-empty both translate to bad optics when it comes to arenas” (NEW HAVEN REGISTER, 3/28).
