Sources: Sun sold to Fertitta family, will relocate to Houston
The Connecticut Sun franchise is being sold to the Fertitta household to deliver the WNBA again to Houston, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
The sale settlement is for $300 million, sources mentioned, a record-breaking value for a WNBA group.
The group will play one last season in Uncasville, Connecticut, in 2026 earlier than relocating in 2027. An official announcement is predicted Monday.
Sources mentioned the franchise is predicted to use the Comets title, harkening again to when the Houston Comets have been a part of the league from 1997 to 2008, an iconic authentic franchise that gained 4 straight championships from 1997 to 2000.
The WNBA beforehand indicated robust curiosity in returning to Houston. At the league’s three-team growth announcement final June, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert particularly highlighted the town of Houston and Houston Rockets proprietor Tilman Fertitta as “up next” and “the one we have our eye on.”
ESPN reported in December that the Rockets possession was in substantive talks with the Sun to purchase the franchise. A sale to Rockets possession marks the newest instance of the WNBA shifting towards having extra groups with NBA homeowners.
The Sun have been owned by the Mohegan tribe since 2003, after they purchased and relocated the franchise (then the Orlando Miracle) from Florida to Uncasville.
The Sun launched a course of to discover funding choices in fall 2024, initially looking for to assess alternatives for a restricted partnership sale that might assist fund an infrastructure construct. Sun possession initially reached a deal to promote the group for a document $325 million to a bunch led by former Boston Celtics minority proprietor Steve Pagliuca that might have moved the franchise to Boston, however the WNBA successfully blocked the deal from progressing any additional, holding agency that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams” and that cities which have already gone by means of the growth course of have precedence over Boston.
PaperCity Magazine of Houston was first to report the information of the sale to the Fertittas.
