Rockets owners to purchase Connecticut Sun, relocate team to Houston: Sources
The Connecticut Sun are finally off the market. Almost a year after the franchise went up for sale, the Mohegan Tribe is selling the team to the Fertitta family, the owners of the Houston Rockets, two sources briefed on the deal confirmed. The Sun sold for $300 million, according to one of the sources.
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The transaction, when it is completed and approved by the league’s board of governors, will set a record for a WNBA team sale.
The Fertitta family will move the Sun to Houston, a source confirmed, though not immediately. This will bring the WNBA back to Houston after the Comets franchise disbanded in 2008.
The Paper City Magazine was the first to report the news of the transaction.
The Sun went on the market last spring and were nearly sold twice. Steve Pagliuca, a Boston Celtics minority owner, had an agreement to buy the team for $325 million. But the deal did not pass muster with the WNBA league office. When the league did not approve the deal, which likely would have moved the franchise to Boston, it received an offer from former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry at the same price. Lasry wanted to move the team to Hartford, Conn. That also was not approved by the WNBA.
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Tilman Fertitta had shown an interest in buying the franchise once it hit the market and had tried to acquire a WNBA expansion team last year before the league awarded ones to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that Houston would be the next city to get a team.
The WNBA leadership made it clear to Mohegan Tribe leaders that the way to resolve their impasse with the franchise was to sell the Sun to Fertitta for $250 million and let him move the team down to Houston.
Now, the Rockets owners will get their own WNBA team. The league’s return to Houston will give the city a historic tie to the league. The Houston Comets were one of the WNBA’s original franchises and won the first four titles in WNBA history.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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