The WNBA and NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale and relocation of the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, making what already has been known, official: The Houston Comets are returning.
Fertitta Entertainment, Tilman Fertitta’s company that also owns the Houston Rockets, announced in March that it had agreed to buy the Connecticut franchise from the Mohegan Tribe and would relocate the team to the Toyota Center. All that was missing was sign-off from the league, and now that final hurdle has been cleared.
The Comets will have a press conference Thursday to celebrate the announcement.
Details of the sale have yet to be released, but the deal reportedly cost the Fertittas $300 million, which is the highest for which a team has been sold in the WNBA. The last WNBA team to move cities was the Las Vegas Aces, which relocated from San Antonio in 2017.
The Sun, who are off to an 0-2 start, will finish this season at the Mohegan Sun Arena and move to Houston in time for the beginning of the 2027 season.
The Comets were one of the league’s first eight teams when the WNBA was founded in 1997. Houston won the first four WNBA championships and boasted stars Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson — all of whom are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The team played its final game Sept. 15, 2008, in San Marcos after Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area. The franchise suspended operations months later.
Houston re-enters a drastically changed WNBA. The league has 13 teams and will expand to 18 with the addition of Portland and Toronto this season, followed by Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030).
The Sun had made eight straight playoff appearances before a roster overhaul led it to hit rock bottom last season, posting a franchise-worst record of 11-33. In its final season in Connecticut, the team added former Houston high school star Brittney Griner to a roster full of second-year players like Leïla Lacan, Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow and Hailey Van Lith.