{"id":356193,"date":"2025-12-19T20:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:29:11","slug":"houston-rockets-in-talks-to-buy-wnbas-connecticut-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356193\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets in talks to buy WNBA’s Connecticut Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2014 Representatives with the Houston Rockets are in negotiations to acquire the Connecticut Sun and relocate the WNBA team to Houston, according to ESPN<\/a>, which heard from sources close to the discussion.<\/p>\n

The talks have been characterized as \u201cpositive,\u201d with the Rockets ownership increasing its offer to a number closer to one the Sun\u2019s leadership may agree with. The parties have not yet signed an exclusivity agreement<\/a>, which ensures a potential partner won\u2019t communicate with competitors while finalizing a contract or purchase.<\/p>\n

The Sun has been in talks with the WNBA for a new home since 2003. The team’s owner,\u00a0The Mohegan Tribe<\/a>, put the team up for sale in May to market off the WNBA\u2019s boom in popularity. A minority owner of the Boston Celtics<\/a> even offered $325 million for the team in July, but the deal was ultimately blocked by the WNBA\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

There have been several ownership groups in recent months showing interest in the Sun, and the WNBA even offered to buy the Sun for $250 million recently, so the organization could have relocated the team to a market of its choice.<\/p>\n

That said, the WNBA has expressed a strong interest in returning to Houston, which was once the first dynasty of professional women\u2019s basketball. The powerhouse Houston Comets<\/a> won the first-ever four WBNA championships from 1997-2000. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert even characterized Houston and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta as \u201cthe one (they) have (their) eye on\u201d in June press conferences.<\/p>\n

Gretchen Sheirr, president of business operations for the Rockets, said in July that Houston doesn\u2019t want to give up on acquiring a WNBA team. The WNBA announced an expansion<\/a> to 18 teams back in June, adding teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

“The addition of three WNBA expansion teams is a testament to the trajectory of the league and the excitement surrounding women’s basketball,\u201d Sheirr said in a statement to Chron,<\/a> a Houston local news source, this summer. \u201cWe remain committed to exploring every avenue to bring a WNBA franchise back to the City of Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideally, the Sun\u2019s future in the WNBA will be decided before free agency begins, where all but two players on the team will no longer be under contract. The WNBA players’ union is still negotiating an agreement of when free agency will begin, and a deal deadline is set for Jan. 9, ESPN reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Representatives with the Houston Rockets are in negotiations to acquire the Connecticut Sun and relocate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,154009,44,24783,154008,82,544,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-356193","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-corinne-piorkowski","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-professional-basketball","13":"tag-rotx-what-you-need-to-know","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356193","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=356193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}