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The WNBA is returning to Houston.
Roughly a year after the Mohegan Tribe officially put the Connecticut Sun on the market, the Fertitta family—who owns the Houston Rockets—are purchasing the team for $300 million, sources privy to the deal confirmed to Front Office Sports. The Sun will play the 2026 season in Connecticut before relocating to Houston where they are expected to be renamed the Comets, after the league’s original dynasty team.
The sale was first reported by Paper City Magazine.
Tilman Fertitta, who has a net worth of more than $12 billion, according to Bloomberg, is also the U.S. ambassador to Italy.
An announcement of the sale—which comes at a record-breaking price for a WNBA team—is expected on Monday, according to sources.
Before the Sun formally went up for sale last spring, discussions were happening within the league about facilitating a deal between the Cleveland ownership group and the Tribe. This would have allowed Houston to be granted an expansion franchise. Ultimately, the Tribe took the sale to market after being advised they would receive higher offers. As a result, the Cleveland group—led by Dan Gilbert’s Rocket Entertainment Group—were granted an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2028.
The WNBA capped its last round of expansion at three teams—awarding Detroit and Philadelphia a team in addition to Cleveland—leaving Houston on the outside looking in. At the time of the expansion announcement last June, commissioner Cathy Engelbert assured “Houston would be up next, for sure” when asked about a timeline for evaluating bids in the future.
Ultimately, the Sun fielded two offers valued at $325 million, first from a Boston group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca and another from former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry. The latter offer proposed moving the team to Hartford, Conn. The WNBA stamped out both, emphasizing only the league—not individual teams—can make relocation decisions.
Sale discussions outwardly appeared to quiet into the fall, but behind the scenes talks continued between the Fertittas and the Tribe.
The Mohegan Tribe became the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team when they bought the Orlando Miracle in 2003 and relocated the team to Connecticut.
The WNBA launched in 1997 with eight teams, one of them being the Comets who went on to win the league’s first four titles. The team folded in 2008 amid a slew of teams ceasing operations due to financial strain in rapid succession. Between 2002 and 2009 five other franchises in addition to the Comets folded: the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Sacramento Monarchs, Miami Sol, and Portland Fire.
By 2028 the Fire, Comets, and potentially the Rockers—if the Cleveland group opts to bring back the team’s old name—will all be restored in the WNBA.
