Even with their name not officially trademarked, the Houston Comets made their reincarnation official Thursday, in a giddy press conference that also revealed the Sun’s front office staff will move with the players from Connecticut.
Seated side by side, Rockets alternate governor Patrick Fertitta (son of owner Tilman Fertitta) and President of Business Operations Gretchen Sheirr (who sold Comets tickets back in 2001) laid out the immediate plans for the franchise — which included a full merger with Sun executives and renderings of a new Toyota Center practice facility that will go under construction pronto.
“As soon as everyone leaves here today, I’m not kidding, walls are coming down,” Sheirr said. “…We are adding locker rooms, training area for them all on the surface level behind us. So that when their season is over and they start to move here in the offseason their facilities will be ready.”
Sheirr said meetings with Sun executives will commence next week, but she mentioned team President Jennifer Rizzotti (once a fourth-round pick of the Comets) and GM Morgan Tuck will join former ESPN reporter Kevin Pelton (the Comets’ first executive hire in Houston) in the new intertwined front office.
“I would imagine that when the season comes to a conclusion, they will actually start physically making that transition,” Fertitta said. “But regarding the Rockets and what we have here, it would be foolish of us not to use some of the existing infrastructure and support, not just in the transition, but once they’re here to help them do their job at the highest level possible.
“But I think it is important to say that the Rockets are the Rockets, the Comets are the Comets. [The Sun] have great leadership, they have a very good team, and for the vast majority of the work is going to be expected to be done by that leadership team.”
Asked if the organization had a contingency plan if the name Comets cannot be trademarked for this second iteration, Sheirr said she was “very confident” the WNBA would be able to clear the brand. The original trademark had expired in 2021, and in 2024, a Delaware company TSTM Holdings LLC applied for the trademark for apparel purposes and more. But the league is in the process of reclaiming it, apparently.
Asked if it was priority to reprise the name Comets, Fertitta said, “It was immensely important. The Comets are so synonymous with women’s basketball and the WNBA in this town, and it just felt like it honestly didn’t make a lot of sense to go any other direction. There is such a special brand and identity that already exists. There’s such history and nostalgia, and for us, it wouldn’t feel right to have a different name, a different brand than the Houston Comets playing in the WNBA in this town.”
Sheirr said season ticket deposits are in the thousands and that marketing a WNBA team is “a big business” compared to the last time the Comets were in town.
“[Comets] 1.0 was a startup,” she said. “And now we’re 30 years later, and these are big businesses that have huge corporate support, that have big fan bases, that have media rights. And so, the landscape of how the business operates has definitely advanced.”
In fact, when Fertitta was asked when he expected profitability, he smiled and said, “Immediately.”
