The Comets are now up for sale, with a new chief exec in to handle the handoff, if there is one.

Earlier this week at Off-Court, Melissa expressed outrage at the idea that the Comets-- who won the first four WNBA titles-- might ever leave the city of their birth.

Melissa points out that Seattle fans formed a big lobby to keep their teams in town, that a group of locals ultimately bought the Storm, and that the Green Bay Packers are owned by a nonprofit entity with local shareholders, a structure designed to keep them from ever leaving town. Why can't Houston fans put something like that together for Tina Thompson's team?

But as pilight pointed out during the threat to Seattle, no major sports leagues now permit new community ownership of the kind that Green Bay has. Save Our Storm were great, but the team was ultimately purchased by four admirable local businesswomen, not by thousands or even hundreds of fans.

The WNBA's business model-- and the NBA's, for that matter-- virtually requires owners willing to lose a great deal of cash (a lot, lot more in the NBA) in a bad year. In the NBA they can always make the money back if they sell the team; in the W, they can simply afford to lose the relevant amounts of cash, year after year, and they stick around because they want to be there. That's why Michael Alter and Ron Terwilliger and Sheila Johnson seem to be good owners.

It's also why community ownership and community activism might not be the solution to the Comets' problems, as admirable (and effective, in Seattle) as community organizing can be. And it's why you can expect to see Donna and company keep seeking potential buyers outside the Gulf Coast-- in Dallas, or in Albuquerque or Denver-- as long as no wealthy-enough Houstonian steps up.

I'd love to see the Comets stay in Houston-- but I'd rather see them move than see them fold.