Houston Comets expected to return after WNBA’s Connecticut Sun relocate to Texas
The Houston Comets are back.
Fertitta Entertainment, the owners of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, have an agreement to buy the Connecticut Sun and move the franchise to Houston, as The Athletic reported Friday. The Sun will be renamed the Houston Comets and start play at the Toyota Center, which is the home of the Rockets, in the 2027 season, once the sale is approved by the league’s board of governors.
Advertisement
The announcement officially ends an arduous year on the market for the Sun and brings a historic WNBA franchise back to Houston. The team sold for $300 million, according to one person briefed on the transaction.
The Comets were an original WNBA franchise and won the first four championships in the league’s history. It was powered by stars Cynthia Cooper (who won the first two WNBA MVP awards), Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson.
Despite that success, the Comets disbanded after the 2008 season. Now, they will reboot and return to the league.
The sale will, however, also usher in the end of the WNBA’s time in Connecticut. The Sun moved there in 2003 after playing four years in Orlando when the Mohegan Tribe bought the franchise.
Advertisement
Though it played in one of the WNBA’s smallest markets, the Sun had consistent success. They made the WNBA Finals twice and the semifinals four times from 2019 through 2024. In all, they made four WNBA Finals appearances.
“The Connecticut Sun organization understands how emotional this moment is for our fans and community,” team president Jen Rizzotti said in a statement. “You have made a home for this franchise for generations, and we are grateful for the passion and support that made us a cornerstone team in the WNBA. While the league continues to grow and evolve, our commitment is to honor this legacy — and finishing this final season together with pride.”
The Sun had put themselves up for sale last spring and had two interested buyers. Steve Pagliuca, a Boston Celtics minority owner, offered to pay $325 million for the franchise and ultimately move the team to Boston. The WNBA refused to approve the deal. Marc Lasry, the former Milwaukee Bucks owner, was willing to pay the same amount and move the Sun to Hartford. The league also blanched at that, even though both would have set a record for a WNBA-control team sale.
“They have every right to sell the team in their market,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in September. “But then we started to be contacted by people in Boston and elsewhere saying that there was a suggestion that they could buy a team in one market and take it to another. That’s sort of black-letter law in sports leagues: You can’t do that. You’re buying that market. Teams have different values in different markets, and we view those other markets as expansion markets.”
Advertisement
The Rockets, however, got permission to move the franchise to Houston. The Fertitta family and the city tried to obtain an expansion club last year but missed out to Toronto and Portland. At the time, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Houston would be the next to receive a team. While the Tribe was in a standoff with the WNBA about selling the Sun, the league made it clear to ownership that they could sell the team to Tilman Fertitta and let him move it to Houston, league sources said at the time.
Ultimately, the WNBA and Fertitta got what they wanted. The Comets are coming back to Houston.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Houston Rockets, Connecticut Sun, WNBA, Sports Business
2026 The Athletic Media Company
