Sources: Sun sold to Fertitta family, will relocate to Houston

The Connecticut Sun franchise is being sold to the Fertitta family — the owners of the Houston Rockets — in a deal that will bring the WNBA back to Houston, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.

The sale is closing at $300 million, a record price for a WNBA team, and did not include a relocation fee, sources said.

The Sun will play one final season in Uncasville, Connecticut, in 2026 before relocating in 2027. Houston had previously been vetted by the league as a potential city for future expansion or relocation.

An official announcement is expected Monday. The ultimate sale and relocation are still pending approval of the WNBA’s Board of Governors.

Sources said the franchise is expected to use the Comets’ name, harking back to when the team was part of the league from 1997 to 2008, an iconic original franchise that won four straight championships from 1997 to 2000.

The WNBA previously indicated strong interest in returning to Houston. At the league’s three-team expansion announcement in June, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert highlighted Houston and owner Tilman Fertitta as “up next” and “the one we have our eye on.”

ESPN reported in December that Rockets ownership was in substantive talks with the Sun to buy the franchise. The sale marks the latest example of the WNBA moving toward having more teams with NBA owners.

The Sun have been owned by the Mohegan Tribe since 2003, when they bought and relocated the then-Orlando Miracle from Florida to Uncasville. They were the league’s first non-NBA owners and the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team.

PaperCity Magazine first reported the sale of the Sun to the Fertittas.

The Sun launched a process to explore investment options in fall 2024, initially seeking to assess opportunities for a limited partnership sale that would help fund an infrastructure build. Rockets ownership was one of several parties that bid on the Sun, eventually raising its offer to the same $250 million fee of the three cities awarded expansion teams in June 2025.

Sun ownership, however, initially reached a deal last summer to sell the team for a record $325 million to a group led by former Celtics minority owner Stephen Pagliuca that would have moved the franchise to Boston.

But the WNBA effectively blocked the deal from progressing, holding firm that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams” and that cities that have already gone through the expansion process — which included Houston — have priority over Boston.

Several other options were explored: A group led by former Milwaukee Bucks minority owner Marc Lasry submitted a bid at $325 million that looked to move the team to Hartford. Sun ownership tried to work out a way to use funds affiliated with the state of Connecticut to buy a minority stake in the franchise before that possibility fizzled.

Though the franchise was in the WNBA’s smallest market, making it difficult to attract free agents, the Sun historically were one of the league’s most consistently successful teams on the court. They made the playoffs for eight consecutive years before entering a rebuild in 2025, advancing to the Finals four times in their history but falling short of winning a championship.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.