WNBA, NBA approve Sun sale to Fertitta, relocation to Houston

UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- The WNBA and NBA board of governors have unanimously approved the sale and relocation of the Connecticut Sun franchise from the Mohegan Tribe to Houston Rockets owner Tilman J. Fertitta, the league announced Wednesday.

The official news comes after the Sun had first announced an agreement had been reached with Fertitta in March and substantive talks between the parties were initially reported by ESPN in December.

The Sun will play the remainder of the 2026 season in Connecticut -- including two games at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford and another at TD Garden in Boston -- before relocating to Houston ahead of the 2027 campaign.

"I think, first and foremost, I want our staff and players to just be able to focus on this season and being present for the 2026 last season in Connecticut," Sun president Jen Rizzotti told reporters ahead of the team's matchup Wednesday night against the Las Vegas Aces. "I think our fans deserve that. And I think as a front office staff, our job is to continue to put on a great show and put a great product on the floor but also make sure that we're inviting people into this arena for the last time, and they're going to create some experiences that will last forever.

"As far as the move, we'll digest that when the time comes after the season. Obviously, there's a lot of positive repercussions of being associated with a team that has the kind of resources and infrastructure that Houston has, and I think that's a positive for our players and our basketball staff as they move into the future, especially with this new CBA."

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

Fertitta has owned the Rockets since 2017.

The sale of the franchise is expected to close soon, as it couldn't be completed without league approval, a source familiar with the situation told ESPN.

Sources told ESPN in March that the sale was to set to close at $300 million, a record price for a WNBA team, and did not include a relocation fee.

Rizzotti said there already has been initial collaboration with Rockets personnel, though there will be much more moving forward now that the sale is official. Former ESPN NBA reporter Kevin Pelton has already been hired as the assistant general manager and vice president of analytics for the new WNBA franchise in Houston.

"It's just been kind of basic introduction and a little bit of questioning and diligence as it relates to the business operations of the team," Rizzotti said. "But as far as decisions strategically that we've been making for the '26 season, that has fallen on me on the business side, and myself and [general manager] Morgan [Tuck] on the basketball side. We've looped Houston in to a certain extent on that, but we wanted to wait and they wanted to wait until it was official for that relationship to be more formal."

Rizzotti added she's been given the impression those working for the Sun who want to move to Hoston will be welcomed to do so, but more formal conversations are expected to happen in the coming months.

Fertitta is the latest NBA owner to acquire a WNBA team. The league's three upcoming expansion teams -- Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia -- all also have NBA ownership.

Rizzotti said that while independent owners should get credit for pouring money into franchises when the league initially moved away from NBA ownership -- and that independent owners shouldn't be excluded moving forward -- there are some positives with this emerging trend.

"I think it's a natural shift, and it makes sense that there's a relationship that can benefit WNBA teams when you're working in a basketball ecosystem where you can share resources, whether it's basketball resources, whether it's front office, ticket sales, marketing, content creation resources or facility infrastructure," Rizzotti said. "The understanding these owners have now that they have to pour into the women's franchise as much as they are pouring into their NBA franchises, it's refreshing to see that happening.

"I think that it's OK for the league. It's something that we should all feel excited about, that there are so many people interested in investing in the WNBA at this time, and we're going to make the most of it. And we're going to take advantage of the resources that Houston can provide to us now before we even move there."

The future of the Sun franchise has been in limbo for nearly two years, as the team launched a process to explore investment options -- including a potential sale -- in the fall of 2024.

Sun ownership 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, arguing 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.