{"id":228387,"date":"2026-03-31T10:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228387\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:15:19","slug":"rockets-owner-tilman-fertitta-confirms-return-of-houston-comets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228387\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta confirms return of Houston Comets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta on Monday publicly acknowledged his deal to purchase and relocate the Connecticut Sun, all while his front office began fast-tracking a Houston Comets website and a ticket deposit plan for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

At 9am ET Monday, the Rockets and Fertitta Entertainment launched houstoncomets.com, where fans could place a $99 per seat deposit and secure priority access to next year\u2019s season tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the time is right to begin the next great era of Comets basketball, and we look forward to working with the WNBA as we move through this process,\u201d said Rockets Alternate Governor Patrick Fertitta after his father\u2019s company agreed to pay a reported $300M to the Mohegan Tribe for the Sun.<\/p>\n

In Connecticut over the weekend that sales price seemed to unnerve the state\u2019s Attorney General William Tong because a group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca and another by former Bucks owner Marc Lasry each offered $325M last summer to move the team to Boston and Hartford, respectively. But the league has veto power over franchise relocation and steered the team to Houston, even for $25M less.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am aware of concerning reports regarding a sale that would move the Sun out of Connecticut at a price far less than what was on the table to keep them here at home,\u201d Tong said in a statement through his office Sunday. \u201cThe Office of the Attorney General previously requested relevant documents and we have reviewed portions of certain documents requested of the WNBA. We are consulting with our partners in state government and local leaders regarding this disappointing news.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Comets, meanwhile, were one of the WNBA\u2019s eight original franchises in 1997 and also the original dynasty<\/a>, winning the league\u2019s first four titles behind HOFers Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson and coach Van Chancellor. But their demise in 2008 shows how much the league has evolved the past 18 years.<\/p>\n

The franchise\u2019s original owner, Les Alexander, had sold the Comets to Houston furniture tycoon Hilton Koch in 2007, but Koch lost a reported $4M on the team right away and wasn\u2019t generating much interest locally, either. To reduce costs, he moved the team from Toyota Center to the matchbox 7,200-seat Reliant Arena, but it was far from a salve.<\/p>\n

The WNBA, in 2008, assumed control of the team, but could not locate a buyer and disbanded the franchise after the season, costing 37 employees their jobs. \u201cYou can\u2019t ignore the fact this team was the engine that drove the league,\u201d then-WNBA President Donna Orender said of the Comets at the time. \u201c\u2026Maybe one day the corporate and city leaders [of Houston] will aggregate their resources and resurrect a formidable franchise.”<\/p>\n

That day is Monday, although the WNBA\u2019s Board of Governors still needs to approve the purchase. While the team will not hold a formal press conference until the sale closes — likely in two to three weeks — sources said the Sun\u2019s final season in Connecticut this year will be a collaborative effort between the Sun and Comets front offices. With free agency looming in early April, the future of the Comets\u2019 roster will soon take form.<\/p>\n

Considering Fertitta\u2019s net worth is reportedly above $12B, the franchise should have the financial wherewithal to improve on last season\u2019s 11-33 record, the worst winning percentage since the franchise launched as the Orlando Miracle in 1999. The Sun, though, lost its lottery slot this season due a pick swap, and will instead have the 12th and 15th overall selections in the April 13 draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta on Monday publicly acknowledged his deal to purchase and relocate the Connecticut Sun, all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[32891,56,58,57,14422],"class_list":{"0":"post-228387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-connecticut-sun","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}