With a brand new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in place for the 2026 season and past, the WNBA can now transfer on to different gadgets of enterprise.
Among these different gadgets is saying what has been strongly rumored for some time: the Connecticut Sun are on their strategy to Houston, courtesy of Rockets proprietor Tilman Fertitta.
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Per Chris Baldwin of PaperCity:
The Fertitta household has reached a deal to buy the Connecticut Sun and convey the WNBA again to Houston, with an official announcement expected someday next week, sources inform PaperCity. The settlement is “unofficially done” a supply tells PaperCity. The crew is expected to be renamed the Houston Comets after the Bayou City’s earlier beloved WNBA crew.
The Fertittas, house owners of the Rockets, are buying the Connecticut Sun and the present WNBA franchise will probably be transferring to H-Town, with its first season within the Bayou City expected to be 2027.
The Comets will follow within the Rockets’ new training center and play at Toyota Center.
In December, Michael Shapiro (Chron.com) reported that the most recent bid from Fertitta’s group was above $250 million, which exceeds the recent WNBA expansion franchise prices and will fulfill the sale objectives of Sun possession.
In addition to proudly owning the Rockets, Fertitta is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. But the billionaire’s ties to Houston go back many years, together with the previous iteration of the Comets — and it appears that evidently made an affect.
From 1997 by way of 2008, the Comets had been Houston’s authentic WNBA franchise. Led by iconic names comparable to Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson, the Comets gained the league’s first 4 titles in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. But fan curiosity steadily waned because the crew misplaced relevance within the years that adopted, and that ultimately led to the membership being dissolved by the tip of the 2000s.
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In latest years, nevertheless, curiosity in girls’s basketball has picked up all through the United States — with youthful stars comparable to Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese driving a brand new wave of fandom. That resurgent fan curiosity has led to improved economics for the game and the league, and in flip, that has prompted elevated curiosity in WNBA franchises. Three enlargement agreements were reached in 2025.
Besides to having Toyota Center as a ready-made enviornment and a state-of-the-art practice complex, the Rockets additionally jointly own their very own regional sports activities tv channel in Space City Home Network, which might be a pure match to broadcast WNBA video games throughout the NBA offseason. Thus, maybe in distinction to another cities, Houston has ready-made infrastructure to instantly assist a brand new crew.
The Sun at present play within the WNBA’s smallest media market, they usually completed 2025 with the league’s third-worst file (11-33). Thus, hypothesis has swirled for some time {that a} transfer may show obligatory.
The 2026 WNBA draft is on April 13, and the Sun will pick at No. 12, No. 15, and No. 18 total. They will then start coaching camp and preseason play for his or her last Connecticut season later within the month (schedule).
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More: Rockets ownership in ‘substantive talks’ to bring WNBA team to Houston
This article initially appeared on Rockets Wire: Report: Official WNBA-to-Houston announcement expected next week
