The Fertittas Reach an Agreement To Bring the WNBA Back To Houston With Connecticut Sun Purchase — a PaperCity Exclusive
The Fertitta family has reached a deal to purchase the Connecticut Sun and bring the WNBA back to Houston, with an official announcement expected sometime next week, sources tell PaperCity. The agreement is “unofficially done” a source tells PaperCity. The team is expected to be renamed the Houston Comets after the Bayou City’s previous beloved WNBA team.
The Fertittas, owners of the Houston Rockets, are purchasing the Connecticut Sun and the existing WNBA franchise will be moving to H-Town with its first season in the Bayou City expected to be 2027. This is a major win for Houston, for basketball and for women’s sports. Houston’s long needed a WNBA team to complete its sports team lineup with the Comets having folded in 2008, largely due to poor ownership. The Comets won the first four WNBA championships from 1997 to 2000.
Now the Comets are returning with the WNBA more popular than ever — with a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement finalized that raises the salary cap to $7 million per team. This new era of the Houston Comets will have one of the best organizations in the NBA behind it.
The new era Comets will play at the Toyota Center — and have access to the type of analytical data that the top organizations in sports rely on. But the biggest winners in this whole monumental deal are Houston sports fans. Now Houston has a signature women’s sports franchise. Tilman Fertitta has talked about bringing the WNBA back to Houston as the right thing to do. It is about boosting the city he loves more than making money.
Even for the guy who always knows the bottom-line numbers of all his businesses. Tilman Fertitta preaches Know Your Numbers. But some things are about more than numbers.
Tilman Fertitta and the Rockets organization is bringing the WNBA back to Houston in a major win for the city. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)
Fertitta is the United States Ambassador to Italy and his future may involve even larger political roles. But he still wants to do right by Houston.
Bringing the WNBA back to Houston certainly does that.
