diff --git a/.claude/skills/sprint-start/scripts/start-sprint.sh b/.claude/skills/sprint-start/scripts/start-sprint.sh
index 160738dbd..d72c34d81 100755
--- a/.claude/skills/sprint-start/scripts/start-sprint.sh
+++ b/.claude/skills/sprint-start/scripts/start-sprint.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 # Query teams with open tickets
-TEAMS=$(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && tooling/db/sqlite-query "SELECT DISTINCT team FROM tickets WHERE sprint_id=$SPRINT AND status NOT IN ('done','cancelled')" 2>/dev/null | python3 -c "import sys,json; [print(r['team']) for r in json.load(sys.stdin)['rows']]" 2>/dev/null || true)
+TEAMS=$(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && tooling/db/sqlite-query "SELECT DISTINCT team FROM tickets WHERE sprint_id=$SPRINT AND status NOT IN ('done','cancelled') AND team IS NOT NULL" 2>/dev/null | python3 -c "import sys,json; [print(r['team']) for r in json.load(sys.stdin)['rows'] if r['team']]" 2>/dev/null || true)
 
 if [ -z "$TEAMS" ]; then
   echo "Sprint $SPRINT has no open tickets. Opening main only."