Paulo Alves

The league can get down to business, and the Connecticut Sun are relocating to Houston after this season.

Rockets hired Kevin Pelton to a front office role, I think the first official hire for the Comets, and of course, Kevin, longtime analytics guru for ESPN, but...

He's going to be something of a liaison working with the Connecticut Foreign Office this season as they go through the draft, free agency, expansion draft, any trade opportunities during the season.

And then we'll see what the Rockets choose to do.

Well, the Comets, we should say, although the Rockets and Comets are both owned by the Fertitta family.

when the team gets to Houston this offseason and starts preparing for 2027, which will be their first year to play as the Houston Comets.

This year they will play as the Connecticut Sun.

And so certainly it's fun to have more basketball.

We're a basketball-friendly podcast.

But I think the bigger takeaway as far as the Rockets, and this is not a Comets podcast, it's a Rockets podcast,

It shows you that Tillman Fertitta, Patrick Fertitta, they're serious about spending.

They are spending $300 million to bring the sun from Connecticut to Houston.

That is a record price for a WNBA franchise.

They just spent $75 billion on a new practice facility, which is pristine and the envy of the league.

They spent at least $10 or $20 million, I don't have the exact figure in front of me, to renovate Toyota Center and to bring in the new seats, which are almost complete.

And I think you'll see that in the playoffs with the new black seats instead of the red and other upgrades they've made to the arena in the 2020s.

So when you combine those investments, I mean, between landing a WNBA franchise, upgrading Toyota Center, new practice facility on Houston's west side, that's well over $400, maybe even $500 million in investments this decade for certainly the Rockets, but just the broader basketball scene in Houston.

So the Vertias are clearly willing to spend, and as I see it,

Relative to the first few years that Tillman owned the Rockets and there were these concerns about, is he going to pay the luxury tax?

That's another thing.