Houston Comets franchise to be shut down
Houston Business Journal - by Greg Barr
The most successful Houston sports franchise is no more.
The Houston Comets, which captured the first four consecutive championships of the Women’s National Basketball Association, is to be dissolved by the league after a search for a new ownership group came up empty.
The demise of the team will result in the loss of 37 jobs.
Djacarda Richard, a Comets spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the office staff will continue to work temporarily until the league winds down operations.
“We had been talking to two different ownership groups but couldn’t make it happen,” she said.
The league will conduct a dispersal draft for the Houston players later this month.
Leslie Alexander, the original owner of the Comets who also owns the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets, sold the team to furniture store owner Hilton Koch in 2007. The team moved from the much larger Toyota Center to Reliant Arena for the start of the 2008 season and attracted an average of 6,585 fans per game.
The WNBA took over the fragile franchise from Koch in August.
Tom Garrity, former president of the Houston Aeros minor league hockey team, took over as president to oversee day-to-day operations and assist the league in its search for potential new owners. Garrity replaced Bob McGahie, who resigned in March, two weeks after being appointed president and chief operating officer.
The Comets dominated the fledgling league when it began operations, winning the first four WNBA titles from 1997-2000, led by its talented trio of players: Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson.
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