While the NBA’s potential expansion to Las Vegas has dominated recent headlines, two gaming-connected entities announced a different basketball transaction Monday: Tilman Feritta has purchased the Connecticut Sun WNBA franchise from the Mohegan Tribe for $300 million, a record price for a WNBA sale.
The Sun will play this upcoming season in Connecticut before relocating to the southwest as the Houston Comets in 2027. For Houstonians, the deal represents a triumphant return of sorts — the Comets were one of the WNBA’s original franchises and won the league’s first four championships from 1997-2000 before disbanding in 2008.
The Mohegan Tribe first purchased the Sun in 2003, which at that time was known as the Orlando Miracle. In purchasing the team, Mohegan became the first Native American tribe to own a US professional sports franchise, and also represented the first independent WNBA owner. The NBA used to own and operate all WNBA teams, but Mohegan started the trend of independent ownership. Currently, independent owners and the NBA have the same amount of equity (42% each) in the league. Fertitta also has owned the NBA’s Houston Rockets franchise since 2017.
Both sides of the deal are heavily involved with gaming, specifically casinos — the Mohegans operate Mohegan Sun, one of the most successful tribal properties in the US, while Fertitta owns the Golden Nugget casino chain and is the biggest Wynn Resorts shareholder. While sports betting is legal in Connecticut, it is not in Texas.
In a statement to ESPN, Tilman’s son and alternate Rockets governor Patrick Fertitta said his family is “thrilled for the opportunity to bring the Houston Comets back to this incredible city” and believes “the time is right to begin the next great era of Comets basketball”.
Mohegan was first independent WNBA owner
For Mohegan, selling the Sun comes with a record haul but also represents a somewhat bittersweet ending. The team consistently made the playoffs but lost in the WNBA Finals four times, and was the oldest franchise in the league’s history to never win a championship.
“Mohegan owes an enormous amount of gratitude first and foremost to our extraordinary fans cheering on the team for 23 incredible seasons,” Joe Soper, corresponding secretary for the Mohegan Tribal Council, said in a statement.
“This team — and what the talented women who have worn this uniform over the years have meant to Mohegan Sun, our region and the impact they’ve made both on and off the court, has been nothing short of remarkable.”
Last September, the State of Connecticut put forth an investment plan that would have given the state a minority stake in the club. The bid reportedly topped an offer from the WNBA of $250 million. At the time, Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz noted that the state worked feverishly to keep the team in the Nutmeg State.
There is no public record of any direct revenue sharing agreement between the Connecticut Sun and the state. However, the state receives casino slot revenue from Mohegan Sun.
Will ex-UConn star move with team to Houston?
Connecticut is a hub for women’s basketball in the US, as the University of Connecticut women’s team has won 12 NCAA national titles, most recently in 2025. To this point, Sun President Jen Rizzotti told the Associated Press that she “would have loved to remain in the region for our fan base and for the fact that I think this region deserves a women’s basketball team”.
The decision to sell “has always sat at the ownership level”, she said, but the main focus is now on the season ahead. This year is the 30th anniversary for the WNBA, with the season running May-September.
Rizzotti, who won two WNBA titles with the Comets, also won a national championship at UConn in 1995. A 2013 inductee in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Rizzotti was named president of the Sun in 2021.
“What I don’t want people to forget is the Mohegan Tribe stepped up when nobody wanted a WNBA team and there were NBA owners folding franchises left and right,” Rizzotti told the AP. “I hope that regardless of people’s feelings around this, they’ll remember that we had a really supportive ownership group that poured into the franchise for over two decades.”
Tribe has struggled in expansion efforts
On the gaming front, Mohegan has been busy in recent years but has struggled to land a succesful expansion past Mohegan Sun.
Last year, the tribe was one of eight bidders for a downstate New York casino licence. Mohegan had partnered with Soloviev Group to propose Freedom Plaza, an $11 billion mixed-use complex in Manhattan near the United Nations headquarters. The project was the most ambitious of the eight proposals in terms of scope and price, but was ultimately rejected in the community approval phase.
Prior to that, the operator had attempted to expand into the Korean market with its $1.6 billion INSPIRE integrated resort at Incheon International Airport. But the resort was seized last February after lender Bain Capital accelerated default actions, and Mohegan has since exited the venture altogether.
“We made the deliberate decision not to deploy further capital and as a result we are not currently an equity holder in the project,” former Mohegan Gaming CEO Ray Pineault said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Mohegan had previously become the first tribe to expand to Las Vegas through a casino operating contract at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, but the agreement ended in 2024.
Fertitta heavily connected to Caesars
Fertitta has also been busy in the gaming industry and has accelerated his involvement in recent years. He is currently rumoured to be in discussions with Caesars Entertainment about a potential takeover. The speculation alone has sent Caesars shares on a rollercoaster in recent weeks, though neither side has commented on the rumours.
Additionally, Fertitta is the largest individual shareholder in Wynn Resorts and has grown that stake in recent years. His investment is considered passive but the entertainment mogul appears to now be leveraging his stake in an uncertain market. SEC filings show he has sold a number of call options since the start of the year, with exercise prices ranging from $115 to about $130. Wynn shares closed Monday at about $97. The company declined to comment on the filings.
If Fertitta does buy Caesars, it is unclear if he would be forced to relinquish the Wynn stake or his ownership of Golden Nugget. The billionaire also owns a vacant plot on the Las Vegas Strip that was approved for a casino but has not been developed. Ironically, Fertitta himself is away from his businesses while serving as ambassador to Italy and San Martino. In a letter to the US Office of Government Ethics, Fertitta pledged to avoid any conflicts of interest while serving in the role.
“In the event that an actual or potential conflict of interest arises during my appointment, I will consult with an agency ethics official and take the measures necessary to resolve the conflict, such as recusal from the particular matter or divestiture of an asset,” Fertitta wrote.
Jess Marquez
Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/strategy/fertitta-mohegan-sun-purchase/
