The Connecticut Sun’s visit to Boston for Sun vs Sparks felt less like a celebration and more like an ending. With the franchise set to relocate to Houston next season, the TD Garden game came against the backdrop of criticism that the WNBA passed on Steve Pagliuca’s $325 million offer that would have kept the team in New England.
That decision has turned a night in Boston into a reminder of what might have been. The league approved a move that removes the region’s clearest chance to become a permanent WNBA home, even though recent games in the city had shown there was real appetite for the Sun there.
Jen Rizzotti: the disappointment was real
Jen Rizzotti, the Sun president, said the reaction in Boston reflected a sense of opportunity lost. She said fans were disappointed when the move to Boston was pulled out from underneath them, after it had seemed as though that was the direction things were heading.
Her point matters because this was never just about one game. The Sun’s Boston appearances have built a case that the market can support women’s basketball, and Rizzotti argued that the turnout at TD Garden showed fans will show up and care about the WNBA regardless of the franchise’s uncertain future.
Boston has already shown its support
The evidence from recent seasons is hard to ignore. In 2024, the Sun’s Boston game set attendance and ratings records. In 2025, Boston hosted another Sun game and Caitlin Clark made a rare appearance.
Those moments created the sense that New England was becoming part of the league’s wider story. Instead, the team is headed for Houston next season, and the Boston date now carries the feel of a farewell rather than a launch.
What the crowd said about the market
Even the lower turnout on Tuesday did not change the broader argument. The article linked the crowd size to the Sun’s below-.500 record and the absence of several recognizable players, not to a lack of interest in the city itself.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa put it plainly after the game, saying the support is clearly there for women’s sports in general and that Boston could be a potential expansion opportunity based on the turnout and backing the team receives there.
That is the central tension now. The WNBA has chosen one path, but Boston’s response across multiple visits suggests the other route was viable. Rizzotti said she hopes one day the league will be back in New England celebrating again, but for now the future belongs to Houston.
