The sale sets a new record for a WNBA franchise and brings professional women’s basketball back to a city that has been without it since 2008.
The Fertitta family has reached an agreement to purchase the Connecticut Sun for $300 million, a record price for a WNBA franchise, with plans to relocate the team to Houston Comets in time for the 2027 season, according to sources who confirmed the deal to ESPN. An official announcement is expected Monday.
The Sun will play one final season in Uncasville, Connecticut in 2026 before making the move. The franchise is expected to be rebranded as the Houston Comets, reviving a name that carries significant history in both the city and the league. The Comets won four consecutive WNBA championships from 1997 to 2000 behind players including Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and Tina Thompson before the franchise folded in 2008.
The sale was first reported by PaperCity Magazine.
Who is behind the deal
The Fertitta family owns the Houston Rockets, and the purchase continues a broader WNBA trend of NBA ownership groups acquiring women’s franchises. Tilman Fertitta, currently serving as the United States Ambassador to Italy, has spoken publicly about wanting to bring the WNBA back to Houston as something he viewed as the right thing to do for the city rather than purely a financial calculation. His son Patrick Fertitta serves as alternate governor of the Rockets and as a first-year member of the University of Houston Board of Regents.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert had pointed to Houston and the Fertitta organization specifically at the league’s expansion announcement last June, describing the city as next in line. ESPN reported in December that the Rockets ownership was already in substantive talks with the Sun to buy the franchise.
The new Comets are expected to play at Toyota Center, sharing the arena with the Rockets, and will have access to the organizational infrastructure of one of the NBA’s established franchises.
How the deal came together
The Sun have been owned by the Mohegan tribe since 2003, when they purchased and relocated the franchise from Orlando, where it had operated as the Miracle since 1999. The tribe launched an exploration of investment options in fall 2024, initially looking at limited partnership opportunities to fund an infrastructure build.
A competing offer from a group led by former Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca had reached agreement at $325 million, which would have moved the franchise to Boston. The WNBA stepped in and effectively blocked that deal, stating that relocation decisions rest with the Board of Governors and that cities which had already gone through the league’s expansion process take priority. Boston had not completed that process. Houston had.
The Fertitta deal came in at $300 million, still a record for a WNBA team, and cleared the league’s preference criteria that the Pagliuca offer could not meet.
What it means for Houston and the league
Houston has been without a professional women’s basketball team since the original Comets folded more than 16 years ago, a gap the city’s sports community has felt particularly during the WNBA’s recent surge in popularity. The league finalized a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement that raises the salary cap to $7 million per team, signaling a period of sustained investment and growth.
The Sun finished 11 and 33 last season, so the roster will need significant rebuilding before the Comets debut in 2027. But the organizational backing of the Rockets, the revival of one of the league’s most storied names, and a city that supported the original Comets through four championships give the new franchise a foundation that other recent expansion efforts did not have from the start.
For Boston, the path to a WNBA franchise likely remains open as the league continues to expand, with teams already committed for Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland in the coming years.