{"id":355961,"date":"2025-12-19T17:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355961\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:59:09","slug":"rockets-owners-take-step-toward-buying-and-relocating-wnbas-sun-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355961\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets owners take step toward buying and relocating WNBA&#8217;s Sun, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Article-featuredImageImg\" alt=\"sun.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sun.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"433\" width=\"770\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/teams\/HOU\/houston-rockets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Rockets<\/a> ownership team has expanded talks of a potential purchase and relocation of the WNBA&#8217;s Connecticut Sun, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/47357385\/sources-rockets-owners-expand-talks-buy-move-sun\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to ESPN<\/a>. Discussions have been &#8220;positive&#8221; as the Rockets have improved its offer to a potentially acceptable number, per the report. A formal offer has reportedly been discussed, but the parties have not signed an exclusivity agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA has previously voiced its desire to bring a team back to Houston nearly two decades after the Houston Comets were disbanded in December of 2008 due to financial issues. One of the league&#8217;s founding teams, the Comets won the first four WNBA titles while being led by future Hall of Famers Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since 2003, the Sun have been owned by the Mohegan Tribe, who moved the franchise from Orlando, Florida to Uncasville, Connecticut. Over a year ago, the franchise began the process of potentially trying to find a limited partner that could help fund an infrastructure build.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Rockers were among groups that expressed interest in buying the Sun outright while eventually raising their offer to $250 million (which was the amount that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia paid earlier this year in an expansion fee for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/news\/wnba-announces-three-expansions-teams-in-philadelphia-detroit-cleveland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">new WNBA franchises<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over the summer, Sun ownership reached an agreement to sell the team for a record $325 million to a group that was led by former <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/teams\/BOS\/boston-celtics\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Celtics<\/a> minority owner Steve Pagliuca that would have moved the team to Boston. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/news\/connecticut-sun-sale-u-s-senator-warns-wnba-blocking-sale-would-violate-federal-antitrust-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WNBA blocked that deal<\/a>, however, while stressing that &#8220;relocation decisions are made by WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams&#8221; while adding that cities that have already gone through the expansion process had priority over Boston.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sun ownership recently looked into a possible opportunity where funds affiliated with the state of Connecticut could be used to buy a minority stake in the franchise, but those talks have reportedly slowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The goal is for a resolution prior to the start of WNBA free agency. However, the start of free agency is currently unclear as the WNBA and players&#8217; union are currently in the process of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. The WNBA players association <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/news\/wnba-players-vote-authorize-strike-cba-negotiations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">voted to authorize a strike<\/a> if &#8220;necessary&#8221; earlier this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The Houston Rockets ownership team has expanded talks of a potential purchase and relocation of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,153943,8223,153945,459,153944,153942,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-355961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-connecticut-sun-sale","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-houston-wnba-team","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-rockets-owners-buying-wnba-team","15":"tag-rockets-sun","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}