Comets reborn
The Mohegan Tribe has agreed to sell the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun to Golden Nugget and the NBA’s Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for a record $300 million. The league’s Board of Governors must still approve the sale, but it is expected to do so.
The team will change its name to the Houston Comets, which was one of the original eight WNBA teams when the league began in 1997. The franchise folded after the 2008 season. It appears that the franchise’s history will pick up from where the original Houston team left off, rather than carrying forward the history of the Sun (which itself began as the Orlando Miracle in 1999).
“My family and I are thrilled for the opportunity to bring the Houston Comets back to this incredible city,” Rockets alternate governor Patrick Fertitta said. “Houston has a proud championship history in the WNBA, with banners from the Comets’ four historic championship seasons still hanging in the rafters of Toyota Center. We believe the time is right to begin the next great era of Comets basketball, and we look forward to working with the WNBA as we move through this process.”
Almost stayed nearby
On the flip side, this is an extremely disappointing development for Connecticut Sun fans and fans throughout New England. It was known that the Mohegan Tribe, which owns and operates the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, was going to sell the team, but the hope was that it would stay in the region.
In August 2025, the Mohegan Tribe had a deal to sell the Sun to Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca for $325m, thus at least keeping the team in New England, even if the team would move to Boston. The WNBA, though, said that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams,” effectively nixing the deal.
“I would have loved to remain in the region for our fan base and for the fact that I think this region deserves a women’s basketball team,” team president Jen Rizzotti (who was a star at the University of Connecticut and is a Connecticut native) told the Associated Press. “At the same time, it wasn’t my decision and I’m at a point now where my focus turns to making this the best season we can have and a memorable one for our fans. It’s an opportunity to say thank you to them.”
The team will relocate after the 2026 season.
Image credit: Joe Bielawa
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