HOUSTON — Houston Rockets president of business operations Gretchen Sheirr, wearing a yellow hard hat adorned with a red Rockets “R” logo, pushed aside a plastic curtain and stepped into the future WNBA locker room of theHouston Comets.
The WNBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Connecticut Sun to a company led by Rockets owner Tilman J. Fertitta
in May. The relocation of the franchise to Houston to revive the Comets has created a construction zone at the Toyota Center, which is preparing to welcome its WNBA tenant for the 2027 season.“We are at a mad sprint,” Sheirr told USA TODAY Sports during a September tour of the facility.
Houston is building a locker room, practice court, weight room and offices specifically for the Comets as
part of the $180 million “Toyota Center Reimagined” renovation.
The return of the Houston Comets, the WNBA’s original dynasty, falls somewhere between renovation and restoration.
The circumstances of the sale created unique timing and logistics. The Comets had less than a year between the acquisition and the team’s first game to get operations off the ground, which includes absorbing dozens of team employees who lived in Connecticut.
Sun president of basketball Jennifer Rizzotti, general manager Morgan Tuck and head coach Rachid Meziane are relocating to Houston to retain their roles.
“The product, the players, that infrastructure, the culture that they built, the young talent – all of that is coming (from Connecticut). But we are building a business from scratch,” Sheirr said. “So it’s a combination of relocation, expansion and then, when you have this legacy and dynasty, that’s part of our messaging and the excitement.”
The move also coincides with a crucial growth period for the WNBA, which plans to expand to 18 teams by 2030, and asks fans to reconcile the return of one beloved franchise with the loss of another.
The relocation to Houston left of Sun fans disappointed and angry after the WNBA refused to approve the Mohegan Tribe’s attempts to sell the team to two separate ownership groups that would have kept the team in New England: first to Boston Celtics’ minority owner Stephen Pagliuca and then to former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry.
Instead, months after WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert declared in June 2025 that Houston was “up next” to receive an expansion franchise, Fertitta's group reportedly paid a record $300 million fee for the Sun.
The relocation is “bittersweet,” said Tuck, who has served as Sun general manager since 2021. She and Rizzotti told USA TODAY Sports they felt a responsibility to players and staff to see the move through.
“The best way for me to have handled that was to keep it completely separate and understand that I could feel a sadness and a disappointment and a nostalgia for what the Connecticut Sun has meant to the state," Rizzotti said. "But also an excitement and a feeling of opportunity to move forward with Morgan and crew to continue to build something special.”
The Comets’ legacy includes four consecutive WNBA championships between 1997 and 2000, with star player Cynthia Cooper winning Finals MVP in each of those seasons. Even after the team folded due to financial struggles in 2008, the Comets’ banners continued to hang in the Toyota Center rafters.
Now, Houston is inheriting a rebuilding Sun team that finished each of the last two seasons with an 11-33 record. Tuck said the goal is to make the WNBA playoffs in 2027.
“We were able to shape our young core a little bit more and so now we’re looking at, how do we bring in a few pieces that can really lead this young core that we have and help us take that next step?” Tuck said. “It’s just really coincided in a way with Houston and going through a transition at the same time, but I’m really proud that we’ve stuck to our vision so far.”
Refreshing one of the WNBA’s original teams
Comets 2.0 won’t look the same as the original Comets.
WNBA rules legally prohibit reviving an old design as a primary logo, meaning the Comets couldn’t simply reproduce the franchise’s former branding. But Jose Lopez and Taylor French, Houston’s creative director and senior director of marketing operations, wanted to design logos that simultaneously captured the team’s history and moved the franchise forward.
The Comets unveiled their new logos on Thursday, Oct. 29. Out of respect for Connecticut, the Comets delayed their logo reveal until after the Sun’s final season concluded. The Comets plan to unveil their uniforms, court design and mascot later in the offseason.
The franchise filed federal trademark applications for its design marks and is moving ahead with the Comets branding even thoughthe WNBA is battling to trademark the Houston Comets name after a company tied to rapper Travis Scott filed a competing application.
The Comets have already begun selling season tickets and Sheirr said the community response has been strong. The Comets hosted weekly WNBA viewing parties around Houston this season to get fans invested in the league. In August, they organized a bus caravan for Comets season ticket depositors to go to Dallas for a Sun vs. Wings game. About 300 fans made the trip.
Comets fan Markie Gee, a Houston native, recalled attending WNBA games at The Summit when she was a child. Her favorite player was point guard Kim Perrot, who died from breast cancer before the 1999 season and had her No. 10 jersey posthumously retired by the Comets. Gee said she was elated when she found out the team was returning.
"The camaraderie, I felt like we were all families sitting in the stands," Gee said. "It was just a big party, a good time, and I want that feeling back."
While Sheirr expects some overlap between Rockets and Comets fans, she said Houston will treat its WNBA team as a distinct product. Sheirr and her staff spent the 2026 WNBA season scouring other WNBA arenas. They observed fan arrival times and concessions habits, mascot behavior and how fans engaged with timeout or halftime activations.
“There are things that are different in a WNBA feeling than in an NBA feeling,” Sheirr said. “We find in the WNBA that it’s more than just the competition on the court; it’s the community feeling of you being around other like-minded people, supporting these amazing women athletes.”
The WNBA the Comets joined in 1997 was a vastly different league from the one that exists today, both in terms of structure and cultural relevance. In 2026, the first year of the league’s new media rights deal, theWNBA set several viewership and attendance records in the regular season and WNBA Finals. Player salaries are skyrocketing thanks to a new collective bargaining agreement, andWNBA team valuations are rising, too.
Sheirr worked for the original Comets. She said recent expansion teams such as the Golden State Valkyries – which made the WNBA Finals in the franchise’s second year of existence – show how much the league has changed.
“The biggest inspiration that we have taken from other teams is just expectations of how much this league has grown and how much enthusiasm there is from the fan base,” Sheirr said. “I’ve been here 25 years. … Trying to compare that to now is not relevant at all. And so, seeing these other teams launch has been just a great reminder to not slip back into what you think might be right.”
Building a winning culture in Houston
Rizzotti is a Connecticut native who has worked for the Sun since 2021, but she also won two WNBA championships as a player with the Comets in 1999 and 2000.
In Houston, Rizzotti will reunite with two of her Comets teammates, Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes, who joined the franchise as global ambassadors. The third member of the Comets’ Big Three, Tina Thompson, is expected to be heavily involved in some capacity.
“What I remember about Houston is just the excitement of stepping onto that floor, the expectation that we were going to be competing for championships every single year and playing alongside some of the best players to ever play the game,” Rizzotti said. “Morgan and I, coming from a background of UConn, we also have a very high commitment to winning. So I think we’re excited to be coming back to that culture.”
While Rizzotti and Tuck hope to replicate the success the Comets had on the court, they’re determined to prioritize continuity from the foundation they built in Connecticut.
Meziane is on board for his third season as head coach, Tuck told USA TODAY Sports. Although other basketball operations staffing decisions are not yet finalized, Tuck said the Comets’ staff will look “very similar” to last season.
This offseason is pivotal for the Comets, who are tied with the Toronto Tempo for the best odds to receive the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. USC guard JuJu Watkins and Texas forward Madison Booker headline the draft class and are projected to be the top two picks.
“It’s hard to kind of pass up on those two just because of how much of an impact that they have on their current teams and their style of play,” said Tuck, who was drafted by the Sun third overall in 2016. “I think we all see that it could potentially translate really well to the pro game.”
The final draft order will be determined Nov. 15 at the WNBA Draft Lottery. Then it’s full steam ahead to free agency in February, followed by the April draft.
Whoever the Comets draft will be expected to make an immediate impact as part of a young roster. Fifth-year center Olivia Nelson Ododa, the most experienced player under contract, is coming off the best statistical season of her career. Forward Aaliyah Edwards blossomed into a fearsome post presence and vital leader, while 22-year-old Leïla Lacan is considered one of the league’s best young guards.
Rizzotti believes the team’s culture and track record of player development, along with the relocation to a larger market, will help sell free agents on the Comets.
“Although we may not have star power yet, it’s easier to attract that when you build the foundation the right way,” Rizzotti said.
Houston will likely need to fill at least four roster spots through a combination of free agent signings and the draft. Rizzotti said that current players helped identify two main areas of need: a clutch scorer and veteran leadership.
“We did lose a lot of games late in the game because we didn’t have somebody that could just go get a basket for us or get a quality shot for somebody else,” Rizzotti said. “And then just continued veteran leadership, players that know how to win, are vocal about holding their teammates accountable in the right ways and not afraid to challenge their teammates and their coaches.”
The Comets worked with Sun strength and conditioning staff to design the weight room and adjacent offices being added next to practice court in Toyota Center, which will serve as the Comets’ full-time home.
The Comets’ locker room is expected to be finished in January, and the team will have a dedicated medical treatment area and a dining area shared with the NBA team. The Comets worked with the WNBA to make sure the facilities met the standards required by the league CBA, including a nursing room and a family room.
The Comets offered every employee in the Sun organization the opportunity to relocate to Houston. Sheirr said “almost all” of the Connecticut business staff accepted positions with the Comets, and those people start work in Houston on Nov. 2.
The team’s head of player relations and strength staff arrived immediately after the WNBA regular season ended. Tuck and Rizzotti expect to move in November, while players are expected to start arriving early in 2027.
Tuck said there's pressure inherent with reviving a team that helped put the WNBA on the map. But if all goes to plan, the Comets will hang more championship banners at Toyota Center.
“The Houston Comets name really means something, and it’s meant something for a long time,” Tuck said. “So I think it’s great that we get a chance to kind of continue that legacy but also put our spin on it at the same time.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA's original dynasty rebuilt: Houston Comets face 'mad sprint' to 2027 return | Exclusive
