WNBA president declares Comets to disband

Dec 2, 2008 - 1:55 AM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- The four-time WNBA champion Houston Comets will suspend operations.

The league-owned team will be shut down next week because new owners couldn't be found, WNBA president Donna Orender told television station KRIV on Monday.

"We are unfortunately at a place we hoped that we wouldn't have to be at, the Comets will cease operations in this coming week," Orender said.

The newspaper cited that while several investors approached the league with interest to keep the team in Houston before the November deadline, the WNBA declared that there wasn't enough time to complete the transaction.

One of the league's original teams founded in 1997, the Comets claimed the WNBA's first four championships from 1997-2000.

"All of our energies were focused on finding a viable ownership group in the city of Houston," Orender said. "As such, going really to the wire with a group that expressed an interest and desire to keep it there, at some point you can't start in another city.

"We're really too late to be able to drive success in another market. We were really focused on driving success in the Houston market."

The league will hold a dispersal draft for the remaining players on the Comets.

"December 8 we will have a dispersal draft and the players who are available to be drafted will be drafted in an inverse order of finish by the current WNBA teams", Orender said. "So the Atlanta team will have the first available player or the player they so chose on December 8."