(Non-Monarchs) Houston Comets are up for sale!

[StevenHW]

Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Houston Comets and the NBA's Houston Rockets team, has decided to put the Comets up for sale.

(click below for the two news items):
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkw/4267257.html


http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/news/story?id=2630178


I do agree with the argument that independent ownership would be a good thing for the WNBA, but finding a buyer to financially back a WNBA franchise is much easier said than done. Still, there must be a wealthy-enough person somewhere in Texas who is willing to invest in a WNBA team.

 

[supamari0]

Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Houston Comets and the NBA's Houston Rockets team, has decided to put the Comets up for sale.

(click below for the two news items):
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkw/4267257.html


http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/news/story?id=2630178


I do agree with the argument that independent ownership would be a good thing for the WNBA, but finding a buyer to financially back a WNBA franchise is much easier said than done. Still, there must be a wealthy-enough person somewhere in Texas who is willing to invest in a WNBA team.

Actually independent ownership is terrible for WNBA teams like the Comets. In their case, they'll now have to start paying rent at Toyota Center because its owned by Les Alexander. They lose their television and radio deals because those were package deals with the rockets and since they lose their rockets affiliation with a sale, they also lose those package deals. They also lose out on marketing and financial considerations that came with the affiliation with the Rockets and now force the new owner to build from ground up.

Either way, they never had a chance here. The city doesn't care about them, Toyota Center is still expensive as hell (at least with Compaq Center you had free parking and cheaper tickets) and people don't like going all the way to downtown. They were never profitable but now it seems like a virtual certainty that they'll never ever make money. Its unfortunate but that's the way it is.