The WNBA is officially welcoming back the Comets for its 2027 season, and executives in Houston are already preparing for the team’s arrival once the 2026 campaign concludes later this year.
Once the Connecticut Sun conclude their final year there, the franchise will relocate to Houston, where new facilities will be awaiting the team.
Per Houston’s latest announcement:
The return of the Comets comes during a transformative period for both Toyota Center and the WNBA. As part of Toyota Center Reimagined, the Comets will benefit from expanded and modernized practice and training facilities, elite medical, recovery, and nutrition resources, and locker room facilities designed to provide a world-class player experience. The new Toyota Center facilities are currently being renovated ahead of the 2027 WNBA season.
Renderings of the new facilities are available in the team’s latest video posted to social media. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Gretchen Sheirr, president of business operations for the Rockets and Comets, addressed the expansion at Thursday’s introductory press conference.
Regarding the project and its timetable, Sheirr said:
As soon as everyone leaves here today, I’m not kidding, walls are coming down and construction will start. We will renovate the existing basketball infrastructure that’s here. This is where they will practice. Toyota Center is their home. We are adding locker rooms, a training area for them, all on the service level behind us.
The permits are filed, and we’re going to start really soon so that when their season is over and they start to move here in the offseason, this facilities will be ready.
The complete press conference can be listened to below. Previously, the NBA’s Rockets had used the Toyota Center practice court areas before moving to a new facility on Houston’s West Loop in late 2024.
The upgrades and new facilities are all being funded by Tilman J. Fertitta, who now owns both the Rockets and Comets.
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Toyota Center to upgrade training facilities for WNBA’s Houston Comets
Reporting by Ben DuBose, Rockets Wire / Rockets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
