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The Connecticut Sun might be moving to Houston.
ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelburne report that the Houston Rockets ownership group “is in substantive talks with the Connecticut Sun over the potential purchase and relocation of the WNBA franchise.”
The uncertain future of the Sun had become a bit forgotten amidst the attention on CBA negotiations.
In July, the Mohegan tribe, which has owned the Sun since 2003, agreed to sell the team for $325 million to Steve Pagliuca, a former Boston Celtics minority owner. The WNBA halted the deal, declaring that the WNBA Board of Governors, not individual teams, had the power to make relocation decisions. The league likewise expressed an intention to prioritize relocation to cities that had been previously vetted for expansion.
Houston was one such city on the WNBA’s expansion radar, with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert even suggesting that Houston was “up next” after it was not selected as a expansion city, with Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia earning the bids that will take the league to 18 teams by 2030. So when the league subsequently offered to buy the Sun from the Mohegan tribe for $250 million and relocate the franchise to a preferred city, it was widely presumed that the league intended to move the Sun to Houston.
The Mohegan tribe resisted the league’s overture. The state of Connecticut then stepped in, proposing using state funds to purchase a stake in the Sun to keep the team in Connecticut. Conversations about such an arrangement have slowed, according to ESPN.
Now, a direct sale of the Sun to Tilman Fertitta, the majority owner of the Rockets, will seemingly satisfy the Mohegan tribe and the league. It would also continue the trend of NBA owners (re)investing in the WNBA through franchise ownership, something that Engelbert has appeared to encourage.
Philippou and Shelburne additionally report, “The discussions have been described as ‘positive,’ and Rockets ownership has improved its offer to a number the Sun might find acceptable.” Although “a formal offer has been discussed,” things are not yet official, as “the parties have not signed an exclusivity agreement and there has not been a decision on the future of the franchise.”
Asked about discussions regarding the sale of the Sun to the Rockets ownership group, the Mohegan tribe shared the following statement with Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports:
Mohegan leadership continues to actively explore different avenues of investment opportunities for the CT Sun. We are excited with the growth of the WNBA and women’s basketball, and are taking a rigorous, diligent approach to this work. We fully understand and appreciate the value of the phenomenal women’s basketball we have had the privilege to support and lead for 23 remarkable seasons. No agreement has been reached at this time, and we are not at liberty to discuss the details of any potential concepts under consideration.
According to Philippou and Shelburne, “The hope is that a resolution on the franchise’s future can be determined before free agency.” The Houston Chronicle’s Michael Shapiro adds that the official sale is expected “to be completed in early 2026.”
Shapiro further reports that the franchise would be re-branded as the Houston Comets, reviving that franchise that won the first four championships in WNBA history before folding in 2008. The team would play at the Toyota Center, the home of the Rockets, while also using the Rockets’ new practice facility.
While the return of the Comets might be exciting to many WNBA fans, as well as players, it feels wrong to so hastily bid goodbye to the Sun. A championship has eluded the Sun during their 23 seasons in Connecticut, but the franchise has compiled a significant history—with 16 playoff appearances, four trips to the Finals, two MVP winners and numerous All-WNBA and All-Star players, along with other award winners—that should not be discarded amongst the infatuation with a bigger market, richer owner and potentially higher profile.
Furthermore, it’s easy to invest in the WNBA when the league is at its apex. Connecticut was there at the nadir, persevering through the many years when professional women’s basketball wasn’t cool.
Even if the Sun branding and history are consigned to the WNBA’s “small potatoes” past, let’s hope that spirited, persistent belief in women’s basketball, through good times and bad, also travels from Connecticut to Houston.
