For weeks, discussions of sports in Connecticut have largely revolved around one question: Will the Connecticut Sun, the state’s foremost major league team, stay in the state? State officials swiftly launched a campaign calling for the Sun to stay in Connecticut and urging residents to sign a petition to help make the case to the league. It’s a complicated thing to consider, requiring an understanding of the WNBA’s recent growth, as well as how sports and local economies feed off of one another. “We don’t have a pro sports team outside of minor league sports in Hartford or in the area,” he said. That’s doubly true in Hartford, which is looking to transform its downtown economy following the pandemic recession.