Image Credits - Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

WNBA eyes former franchise cities as expansion race heats up

Image Credits - Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is one of the fastest growing leagues in the world. With the popularity, the league is making changes across multiple aspects such as the player contracts, sponsorship deals, tv-revenue deals and the number of teams.

The league has seen a gigantic rise in viewership, attendance and merchandise sales from the previous seasons in 2024, which the league has answered by expanding the league to 15 teams from 12 by 2026. Addition of Golden State Valkyries in 2025, Toronto Tempo and a franchise from Portland till 2026 are sealed and done and the league looks for a 16th team by 2028 to join the league.

Multiple old cities with former WNBA teams which were folded due to various reasons have made bids for the 16th team. The cities are Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit and Houston. All four bids are backed by majority owners of NBA teams, Dan Gilbert for Cleveland, Tom Gores for Detroit, Tilman Fertitta for Houston and “Hornets Sports & Entertainment” for Charlotte.

The league has also filed trademark rights for – Detroit Shock, Cleveland Rockers, Charlotte Sting, Miami Sol and Houston Comets. It remains to be seen whether it’s for retro merchandise sales or one of those former teams is returning as the expansion team.

WNBA team extension: Who is leading the race?

The league has also received bids from Austin, Nashville, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Denver which showcases the immense growth, the game of women’s basketball has seen.

The bid for Philadelphia is backed by the Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment (HBSE) which also involves Comcast Spectator who brought a minority stake in HBSE. The group plans to build a new arena in South Philadelphia to promote women’s basketball across the city.

Likewise, the ownership of Denver and Austin have also stated their intentions to build a new multi-purpose arena and a practice facility respectively for their WNBA team. Nashville Predators owner, Bill Haslam backs the bid for Nashville who wants to name their team, “Tennessee Summitt”. This is done in remembrance to the Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt who coached the team for 31 years from 1981 to 2012 and won eight National titles with Tennessee.

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The WNBA Commissioner added her insights on the expansion team and said, “There are 10-12 cities that are very viable that we’re evaluating.” Key factors include a franchise’s arena practice facility, player experience amenities, ownership commitment and city demographics and market research.

“It’s complex because you need an arena and a practice facility and player housing and all the things, you need committed long-term ownership groups,” Engelbert said. “The nice thing is we’re getting a lot of calls.”

WNBA

Suryansh Kumar

NBA/WNBA Writer

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Hello, my name is Suryansh, and I write NBA/WNBA content for ThePlayoffs. I love sports, which is why I write and I love the NBA because of the stats. My aim is to find unique stats and perspectives to provide my readers with another angle on sports.