Casino Mogul Tilman Fertitta to Buy WNBA’s Connecticut Sun for $300M – Rebrand It

Billionaire casino mogul and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has agreed to acquire the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun for $300 million, the highest in the league, and relocate the team to Houston.

Tilman Fertitta Will Purchase the Connecticut Sun 

The sale of the Connecticut Sun carries strong ties to the casino industry, as the seller, Mohegan, operates the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, which also serves as the WNBA team’s home arena. 

Meanwhile, Fertitta Entertainment Inc., which owns the Golden Nugget casinos, has also been linked to recent rumors that Tilman Fertitta is pursuing an acquisition of Caesars Entertainment. Earlier this month, he reportedly made a $34-per-share offer, valuing the company’s equity at around $7 billion.

However, there are competing bids for Caesars, including one from activist investor Carl Icahn. Reports suggest that Fertitta and the casino operator are currently engaged in an exclusive 45-day negotiation period.

Fertitta Entertainment has had a long and complicated history with acquisitions and constructions of new casinos, and the Caesars bid is yet another chapter. One of the biggest plans the billionaire had was to build a 43-story tower with a casino, restaurants, leisure facilities, and over 2,400 rooms on the Las Vegas Strip. However, last year, Fertitta backtracked on these plans as there were multiple concerns raised about a possible conflict of interest.

What Else Do We Know about the Deal?

Back to the current Connecticut Sun purchase – there are still a lot of unknown details about the deal. For starters, some say that the team would be rebranded as the Comets, which was one of the original WNBA franchises when the league was first founded. Led by stars such as Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and Tina Thompson, the Comets won four consecutive WNBA championships from 1997 to 2000. However, following the 2008 season, the team was disbanded.

There’s also the question of where in Houston the Connecticut Sun would be stationed. According to experts, the most likely home of the team would be Toyota Center, which they would have to share with the Houston Rockets, which the Fertitta family acquired for $2.2 billion in 2017.

In addition, if the WNBA signs off on the Fertitta family’s purchase of the Sun, Golden Nugget sportsbooks would likely stop taking bets on WNBA games. There’s precedent for such a move, as when the family bought the Rockets, Golden Nugget sportsbooks no longer accepted wagers on that team’s games.