Connecticut Sun Sold, Will Be New Houston Comets

After over two decades in Uncasville, the Connecticut Sun have reportedly been sold to the Houston-based Fertitta family.

The Sun has reportedly set on WNBA basketball in Connecticut.

Per Chris Baldwin of PaperCity Magazine, the Connecticut Sun WNBA franchise has been sold by the Mohegan Tribe to the Houston-based Fertitta family, which plans to move them to Space City in the name of resurrecting the Comets in time for the 2027 season. Alexa Philippou of ESPN further reported the sale is for $300 million, which would be a record purchase for a WNBA club. 

The Sun will play one more season at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, where it has been stationed under the tribe since 2003. The franchise, which entered the league with the Minnesota Lynx in 1999, was originally stationed in Central Florida and known as the Orlando Miracle and operated under the ownership of the DeVos family, which also has the NBA’s Orlando Magic in its portfolio.

The Sun Won’t Be Shipping Up to Boston

Selling to the Fertittas, who also own the NBA’s Houston Rockets, for $300 million has garnered some scrutiny: the Sun reportedly had a $325 million deal with Boston Celtics minority owner Stephen Pagliuca in place, one that was said to have kept the team in the New England area. The Sun previously played several high-profile games at the Celtics’ home of TD Garden  in Beantown.

However, the WNBA shut down the deal, citing the notion that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams” and opted to give relocation priority to groups that previously sought expansion bids. The Fertittas, led by United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino Tilman, previously made an attempt at such an endeavor but lost out to Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, who will respectively begin play in 2028, 2029, and 2030. That trio will join 2025 entrant Golden State and the incumbent dozen two new franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, will tip off in this coming campaign. 

Located just over 30 miles from the University of Connecticut’s basketball factory in Storrs, Uncasville hosted one of the WNBA’s more consistent franchise over the last two decades: though it has yet to secure a championship, Connecticut has posted the second-best win percentage in the WNBA since 2003 behind only the four-time champion Minnesota Lynx.

The franchise has hosted alumnae from Storrs like Tina Charles and all-time franchise scoring leader Nykesha Sales. The Sun has appeared in four editions of the WNBA Finals (2004, 2005, 2019, 2022) and holds the bittersweet record of most championship appearances without a title.

Comets Come Streaking Back

This will not be the WNBA’s first rodeo in Houston, as the Comets were one of the eight original franchises to take the floor during the league’s debut season in 1997. Under the watch of head coach Van Chancellor, the Comets won each of the first four WNBA championships behind the efforts of legends like Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and the late Kim Perrot.

By 2007, the Comets had lost a bit of their luster, having gone six years without a Finals appearance. Then-Rockets owner Leslie Alexander put the team up for sale and it eventually went to local celebrity/furniture mogul Hilton Koch.

With Chancellor resigning and the team’s original stars either departing (with the exception of Thompson, who remained stationed with the Comets through the team’s entire tenure) or aging, Houston struggled to remain competitive and maintain its fanbase. The separation from their NBA sibling led them to move out of Toyota Center and into the cramped Reliant Arena (now NRG Arena, setting about 10,000 less than their prior lodgings), where it struggled to keep up on and off the floor.

The league eventually took control of the Comets franchise and disbanded it in 2008 after failing to find a new buyer. Thompson, Matee Ajavon, Sancho Lyttle, Michelle Snow, and current Sun associate head coach Roneeka Hodges were part of the final team and several of them found new WNBA postings after the shutdown.

Geno on the Sun sale: “The people at Mohegan Sun, they stepped up when they were needed & brought a team to Connecticut, as Conn. deserves to have a team b/c we’re a proven [place] where people would support women’s basketball. Now [with them] moving, I think it leaves a void.”

— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) March 28, 2026

Sun-set Begins This Spring

While many clamored for the Comets’ return in this wave of WNBA expansion, those pleading likely did not wish to see the return come at the cost of the Sun, which had long carried the torch for professional women’s basketball in New England. The Sun were also the lone major league team among the four major North American sports (basketball, baseball, football, hockey) stationed in the Constitution State, which previously lost the NHL’s Hartford Whalers to Raleigh, N.C. shortly before the WNBA’s aforementioned debut.

Longtime UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma acknowledged the Sun’s departure and its potential aftershocks following his squad’s latest March Madness triumph, a 63-42 shellacking of North Carolina in one of Fort Worth’s regional semifinals.

“The people at Mohegan Sun, they stepped up when they were needed,” Auriemma said, per Philippou. “[They] brought a team to Connecticut, as Connecticut deserves to have a team because we’re a proven [place] where people would support women’s basketball. Now [with them] moving, I think it leaves a void.”

Having lost its head coach (Stephanie White) and nearly 90 percent of its scoring from a 28-win team (including Bonner, Veronica Burton, DiJonai Carrington, Brionna Jones, and Alyssa Thomas), the Sun struggled in the first year of a rebuilding project, placing 11th among 13 teams at 11-33. The team did enjoy the return of Charles to the fold, as well as the antics of first-round picks Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers, as well as 2024 draftee Leila Lacan, who appeared on the Associated Press’ All-Rookie squad. 

Led by second-year coach Rachid Meziane, the Sun owns the 12th and 15th picks of the upcoming WNBA Draft in New York (April 13) . Their apparently final Connecticut hours begin on May 8 against the New York Liberty and the last home opener at Mohegan Sun Arena comes against the Seattle Storm two days later.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags