The Houston Comets Are Back: Inside the Connecticut Sun's Move to Texas

The Houston Comets won the first four WNBA championships in history. They played before sellout crowds of 16,000 at the Compaq Center, carried the weight of an entire league on their backs, and proved to the sports world that women's professional basketball could thrive. Then, in 2008, they were disbanded, and Houston went 18 years without a WNBA team.

That changes in 2027.

The Connecticut Sun, sold to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for a reported $300 million, will play its final season in Uncasville, Connecticut in 2026 before relocating to Texas to become the Houston Comets. It is one of the biggest stories in women's sports this decade: the resurrection of the WNBA's founding dynasty, the largest franchise sale in league history, and a transaction so thoroughly controversial that a U.S. Senator has called for a Department of Justice antitrust investigation.

Here is everything you need to know.

The Connecticut Sun's 23-Year Run Is Over

The Connecticut Sun arrived in Uncasville in 2003, when the Mohegan Tribe purchased the then-Orlando Miracle for $10 million and relocated the franchise to their home at Mohegan Sun Arena. It was a landmark moment: the Sun became the first WNBA franchise owned by a non-NBA entity and the first professional sports team owned by a Native American tribe.

Over 23 seasons, the Sun built one of the league's most consistent programs. They made the playoffs 18 times and advanced to four WNBA Finals, most recently in 2022. They developed stars, cultivated a devoted fanbase in a state that already bled basketball, and turned Mohegan Sun Arena into one of the WNBA's most passionate home courts.

But the arena was also, ultimately, the franchise's ceiling. With a capacity well below the NBA arenas most competitors called home, the Sun were structurally limited in how much revenue they could generate at a time when the league's financial trajectory increasing. When the Mohegan Tribe began exploring sale options in fall 2024, the writing was already on the wall.

"The Connecticut Sun organization understands how emotional this moment is for our fans and community," team president Jen Rizzotti said in a statement when the deal was announced March 30. "You have made a home for this franchise for generations, and we are grateful for the passion and support that made us a cornerstone in the WNBA."

The $300 Million Sale, and the Higher Bids the WNBA Blocked

The sale price of $300 million is extraordinary on its own terms. It is the largest transaction in WNBA history, more than double what any franchise sold for just two years ago, and a testament to the financial transformation the league has undergone in the era of Caitlin Clark, billion-dollar TV deals, and a historic new collective bargaining agreement.

At least two separate ownership groups offered significantly more money and proposed keeping the franchise in New England. Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca offered $325 million with a plan to relocate the team to TD Garden in Boston. Former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry submitted a similar bid at $325 million with plans to move the franchise to Hartford, a proposal that attracted interest from Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, who floated using state pension funds to support a minority stake. Both bids were $25 million higher than Fertitta's ultimately accepted offer.

The WNBA rejected both.

The league's stated reasoning centered on its expansion process: Boston had not applied during the most recent expansion round, and cities that had gone through that application process retained priority. "Relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams," a league statement read, noting that Boston remained "under active consideration" for a future franchise.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had publicly shared for years that Houston was the preferred destination. At the league's most recent expansion announcement in June 2025, she said: "The Houston Comets were just amazing, won the first four inaugural championships in the WNBA. That's the one, obviously, we have our eye on. Tilman has been a great supporter of the WNBA, and we'll stay tuned on that."

Critically, the Fertitta deal also came without a relocation fee, meaning the WNBA steered the sale to a lower bid that cost the Mohegan Tribe $25 million and came with no additional compensation to the league for moving the franchise out of its established market.

The Political Firestorm: Antitrust, the Sherman Act, and the Home Team Act

The Connecticut political establishment erupted.

Senator Richard Blumenthal held a press conference outside the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford on April 6, the first day of WNBA free agency, and called on the Department of Justice to formally investigate the sale under federal antitrust law. "My concern is that the WNBA muscled everyone out and dictated that it go to Houston," Blumenthal told reporters. "That is a violation of fair competition."

Specifically, Blumenthal argued the sale potentially violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, an 1890 federal law prohibiting price fixing, bid rigging, and anticompetitive conduct by monopolies. Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon went further: "This process was rigged and the NBA, which controls the WNBA, did not want the team to stay in Connecticut, despite all of the state's efforts, despite all of the offers put on the table that were exceeding what was offered elsewhere."

Blumenthal also cosponsored the Home Team Act of 2026, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar, which would require professional sports team owners to give local communities one year's notice and a formal opportunity to purchase a franchise before any relocation can occur effectively creating a right of first refusal for host cities, modeled loosely on the Green Bay Packers' community ownership structure.

The path forward for a DOJ investigation remains uncertain. The head of the DOJ's antitrust division resigned in February amid internal tensions, and the current administration has not signaled interest in pursuing the matter. But the political heat is real, and it adds a layer of legal uncertainty to a sale that still awaits final Board of Governors approval.

The Comets: What Houston Is Getting Back

The original Comets were not merely a good team. They were the team that proved the WNBA could work. Founded as one of the league's original eight franchises in 1997, they won the inaugural WNBA championship, then won again in 1998, 1999, and 2000: four consecutive titles that remain unmatched in league history. Their 1998 record of 27–3, a .900 winning percentage, is still the best single-season mark in the history of either the NBA or WNBA.

The dynasty was built on the "Big Three": Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson. Cooper, who had spent over a decade playing professionally in Europe before the WNBA existed, became the league's first MVP and won Finals MVP in each of the four championship seasons. She was, in the words of WNBA president Val Ackerman, so dominant that had the league recognized her ability during the initial player allocation process, "she would not have been assigned to the Comets." Swoopes became the first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her. Thompson was the No. 1 overall pick in the first-ever WNBA Draft.

They played before sold-out crowds at the Compaq Center, were invited to the White House after their third consecutive championship, and carried within them one of the sport's most poignant stories: the 1999 title run was dedicated to Kim Perrot, a beloved teammate who died of cancer that August, just days before the Finals began. The Comets wore her number in the arena and won the championship anyway.

After their last title in 2000, the franchise started to decline, and was ultimately disbanded in 2008 when no buyer could be found due to the financial crisis. Former coach Van Chancellor called it "a sad, sad, sad day." Cynthia Cooper described losing the franchise as "disturbing news."

Houston sports fans drew an immediate parallel to the departure of the Houston Oilers to Nashville in 1997, the other great wound in the city's professional sports psyche.

For 18 years, there was no Comet in the Houston sky.

What the Rebrand Means And What Comes Next

The new Houston Comets will play their first season in 2027, entering a league that looks almost nothing like the one the original franchise helped build. The WNBA has expanded from 8 to 16 teams in 2026, with more on the way. Franchise values have risen 180% in a single year. The average player salary is jumping from $120,000 to $583,000. The league's new TV deals dwarf what existed even five years ago.

The Fertitta family owns the Houston Rockets, one of the NBA's most recognizable franchises, and brings the resources and arena infrastructure that small-market teams like the Sun never had. The Rockets play at Toyota Center, a 18,000-seat arena in downtown Houston that would represent a massive upgrade from Mohegan Sun Arena and give the reborn Comets a stage commensurate with the moment.

The Comets name, and everything it carries, is the real asset. Houston is a massive sports market that has waited two decades for this franchise to return. The original Comets played before sellout crowds in a much smaller market, with a fraction of the league's current media presence.

Connecticut's Loss

What gets lost in the Houston celebration, and what deserves more attention than it has received, is the genuine cost to Connecticut.

The Sun were the state's only major professional sports team. They drew nearly 8,700 fans per game in 2025, an increase of nearly 40% from two years earlier in a building that physically couldn't accommodate more. They played in a state that is home to UConn's legendary programs, a deep high school basketball tradition, and a WNBA fan base that ESPN broadcaster Chiney Ogwumike, a former Sun player herself, described as "the most loyal I've ever experienced."

That fan base got a sale that returned $25 million less than what was offered to keep them, in a process that their own senator is calling rigged.

The Mohegan Tribe, the first Native American owners of a professional sports team in American history , had to accept less than market value because the league they helped build preferred a different city.

"While the league continues to grow and evolve," Rizzotti wrote in her statement, "our commitment is to honor this legacy, and finishing this final season together with pride."

The Bottom Line

The Houston Comets are coming back. The original dynasty of women's basketball that won the first four championships, and produced an entire era of legends will re-enter the league in 2027, backed by one of the NBA's most powerful ownership groups.

That is a genuinely extraordinary story.

The Connecticut Sun's final season in Uncasville begins May 8, 2026. The 2026 WNBA Draft takes place April 13 in New York City. The franchise sale to the Fertitta family is pending approval from the WNBA Board of Governors.