The WNBA introduced Monday it’s going to expand to 18 teams by 2030, with franchises in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia becoming a member of beforehand introduced groups in Portland and Toronto, which start play subsequent yr. The Golden State Valkyries are at present of their first season.
The previous few years have seen dramatic development for the WNBA, which till this season had not expanded since 2008. Constructing on the rise of the ladies’s school sport, an ever-expanding world-wide expertise pool, and a breakout star of world recognition in Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, the WNBA has elevated its footprint within the sports activities world.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who took over her position in 2019, mentioned Monday that she sees this as “excess of growth of the WNBA, it is an evolution” and a “transformational funding in the way forward for girls’s sports activities.”
With the league additionally within the strategy of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the gamers’ union, “transformative” is an correct buzzword for the WNBA now.
ESPN’s Michael Voepel, Kendra Andrews and Kevin Pelton take a look at Monday’s growth announcement and what it means for the WNBA and the person markets.
Why is the WNBA increasing now?
Michael Voepel: For years, the growth query got here up frequently, and the WNBA’s leaders would say the identical factor: They’d potential possession teams in numerous cities however nothing was imminent. It grew to become a boilerplate response till October 2023, when Golden State was introduced because the league’s first growth group since 2008.
That had lengthy been a goal space for the WNBA, which had misplaced considered one of its authentic two California-based groups — Sacramento — after the 2009 season. Growth to Toronto, the league’s first franchise outdoors america, got here in Might 2024, adopted by the announcement of Portland in September 2024.
The WNBA is making the most of the heightened curiosity in girls’s sports activities typically, and girls’s basketball specifically. New possession teams in the previous couple of years have upgraded amenities and dedication, and that drew the eye of different potential house owners.
It would appear to be it is taking place quick now, however generally that is how development is. There was stagnation for a number of years within the WNBA ready for brand spanking new funding. Think about that the New York Liberty franchise was on the promoting block for greater than a yr earlier than Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai purchased it in January 2019 for what now looks like an absurd low cost value of between $10 million to $14 million. However on the time, there have been many individuals who thought the Tsais had been doing the NBA a favor by holding a WNBA group in New York.
It is now believed the Liberty, who received the WNBA title final season, have an estimated valuation of round $450 million. And there are a number of cities and possession teams who wished in on this spherical of growth.
How does this growth affect the $2.2 billion TV rights deal the league signed final yr?
Voepel: That 11-year deal agreed to in July 2024 did not appear to be it might age nicely then, and appears much less prone to now. The WNBA broadcast rights would possibly nicely be price greater than that within the coming years. The excellent news for the WNBA, in accordance with sources, is that the league and its media companions can re-evaluate the rights charges after three seasons of the deal.
How does Monday’s information affect present CBA negotiations? What modifications are the gamers’ union asking for?
Voepel: An increasing league places the gamers in even stronger bargaining place as a result of it reveals how a lot better curiosity there’s within the WNBA. One of the vital important improvements — constitution flights for video games — already got here to the league final yr. Getting that solidified in a brand new CBA needs to be a serious purpose.
Issues corresponding to salaries, different participant facilities, revenue-sharing share, roster sizes, the draft and the size of the season are all on the desk. This WNBA expanded to 44 video games this season and a best-of-seven Finals format. We in all probability can count on a minimum of a 50-game common season is on the way in which.
In its assertion Monday, the WNBA gamers’ union mentioned: “At the moment’s growth information reinforces what gamers, followers, and numerous metrics have already confirmed: the WNBA is prospering and an important funding. Because the league grows, it is important we safe a CBA that ensures gamers absolutely share within the success they drive.”
Engelbert, union govt director Terri Carmichael Jackson and union president Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm all labored collectively on the final CBA, which was signed in 2020 earlier than the affect of the COVID-19 pandemic hit onerous. So that they have a number of familiarity with one another in negotiating. There may be mutual respect on either side, as a result of they not solely acquired that deal accomplished, however they labored along with the house owners to ensure the WNBA had a 2020 season in a “bubble” in Bradenton, Florida.
That wasn’t a assure: Had everybody concerned not pushed onerous for the bubble, the WNBA may need misplaced a complete season and the momentum that introduced. A part of Engelbert’s legacy as a serious sports activities commissioner in america goes to be that important 2020 season and the expansion the league has seen since.
How is that this WNBA growth completely different from 1998-2000, when the league grew shortly to 16 groups by its fourth season however then contracted?
Voepel: It is a very completely different world in each method, from the expansion of girls’s sports activities, to how all sports activities programming is distributed and consumed, to different technological modifications like social media. A few of the early WNBA growth groups had been thought-about primarily charitable dangers as an alternative of enterprise choices, and people franchises — not surprisingly — did not final.
The WNBA launched in 1997 with eight groups: Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah. In 1998, Detroit and Washington had been added. Minnesota and Orlando got here aboard in 1999. Then Indiana, Miami, Portland and Seattle joined in 2000, bringing the league to 16.
The growth proved too quick, with some NBA franchises unprepared to really help their WNBA franchises. Groups in Miami, Orlando and Portland lasted simply three seasons; the Orlando Miracle moved to change into the Connecticut Sun in 2003, however the different two folded.
Cleveland was the primary of the unique franchises to fold (2003), adopted by Charlotte, which ended after the 2006 season, Houston (2008) and Sacramento (2009). The final two had been championship franchises with good fan followings however folded largely as a result of international monetary disaster of 2007-2009.
Detroit moved to Tulsa for the 2010 season, then to Dallas for 2016, the place the franchise is now the Wings. Utah moved to San Antonio in 2003 after which to Las Vegas in 2018, the place the franchise is now the Aces.
Growth franchises joined the league in Chicago in 2006 and Atlanta in 2008. However till Golden State’s addition this season, these had been the one growth groups since 2000.
This new age growth — Golden State, Portland, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia — comes at a time the place WNBA franchises have been confirmed to have accumulating worth.
Golden State paid an estimated $50 million for its franchise, whereas the three new franchises introduced Monday pays an estimated charge of $250 million.
Each group was owned by an NBA possession group when the WNBA launched. Earlier than Monday’s information, that quantity had dropped to 6 of 13 groups. Is it vital that half of the league’s groups will once more be owned by the NBA?
Kevin Pelton: In some methods, Monday’s announcement is the bookend to an period that began after the 2002 season when possession of franchises was transferred to particular person groups. Earlier than then, each WNBA group was affiliated with an NBA counterpart, and several other NBA house owners — together with the late Paul Allen in Portland and, a yr later, the Gund household in Cleveland — opted out.
Impartial possession helped maintain the WNBA afloat during the last 20 years and was behind 5 of the six championships from 2018 by 2023, with the Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm successful two titles every and one for the Chicago Sky. There’ll nonetheless be a spot for these teams, definitely, but it surely’s now clear that NBA house owners need in on the WNBA’s monetary growth and have the assets and connections to outbid impartial house owners.
Extra broadly, there’s been a divide within the WNBA over the previous half-decade between house owners who wish to decrease losses and people who wish to make investments closely within the product with an eye fixed towards long-term development. After paying a $250 million growth charge, it is secure to place the three latest house owners within the latter class, giving that group an awesome benefit heading into CBA talks that always pit house owners towards one another as a lot as they characteristic gamers towards house owners.
Ladies’s basketball gamers lengthy mentioned 144 wasn’t sufficient spots within the league. What does an eventual 216 participant spots imply? How does that affect the CBA?
Kendra Andrews: Engelbert has mentioned she views the addition of growth groups as the proper method so as to add the variety of WNBA jobs fairly than rising roster spots to preexisting groups. This, she mentioned, is less expensive to the league since including particular person gamers would not create further income, however extra groups do. So, sure, the addition of 5 WNBA groups over the following 5 years will create extra jobs and create more cash.
Nonetheless, it would not tackle the entire issues the gamers have relating to roster development. WNBA roster sizes have been capped at 12 gamers since 2014. A number of groups have 11 gamers on their rosters, relying on their wage cap scenario. However accidents are rising, and the size of the season is increasing.
The present CBA gives hardship exceptions for groups so as to add further gamers once they fall beneath 10 energetic, however the ongoing negotiations are preventing for a less complicated system that additionally creates extra alternative.
This may also be the chance to change the rules around draft eligibility. Proper now, these eligible for the draft have to be school seniors, juniors who flip 22 within the yr of the draft or who will graduate inside three months of the draft, and worldwide gamers who flip 20 within the yr of the draft.
What did the WNBA appear to be in Detroit and Cleveland in earlier stints?
Voepel: The Detroit Shock had been the primary group to shake up the shortly established powers within the WNBA’s first six seasons: Houston, Los Angeles and New York. The Comets received the primary 4 championships and the Sparks the following two. The Liberty had been runners-up 4 occasions.
The Shock began 0-10 in 2002, prompting a training change that modified the whole lot for the franchise and the WNBA. Invoice Laimbeer took over as coach and common supervisor, bringing his NBA taking part in expertise and “Unhealthy Boys” fashion to the WNBA. He completed out 2002 at 9-13, however had two big abilities to construct round in former first-round picks Swin Money and Deanna Nolan. Then the Shock added Ruth Riley within the dispersal draft from the short-lived Miami Sol, and the No. 3 choose in 2003, ahead Cheryl Ford.
With that core they beat two-time defending champion Los Angeles within the 2003 WNBA Finals, then received championships in 2006 and 2008 with the addition of veteran Katie Smith. They misplaced within the 2007 Finals to Phoenix.
The Shock’s demise was as fast as their rise. Pistons and Shock proprietor Invoice Davidson died in March 2009. Laimbeer left after simply three video games in 2009, changed by assistant and former Pistons teammate Rick Mahorn. After the 2009 season, the Shock had been bought to an possession group in Oklahoma and moved to Tulsa. Davidson’s property bought the Pistons in 2011.
So there have been loyal, heartbroken Detroit Shock followers who had a three-time champion out of the blue taken away.
Cleveland was a special state of affairs: The group did not have a lot time to determine a foothold in seven years. The Rockers made the playoffs 4 occasions earlier than the franchise folded. Cleveland has hosted two Ladies’s Closing Fours (2007, 2024) because the Rockers folded in 2003. So the area has proven an curiosity in girls’s hoops during the last 20 years, which ought to bode nicely for the re-introduction of the WNBA.
What did we study Philadelphia as a professional girls’s basketball metropolis within the ABL?
Voepel: Dawn Staley is probably going the primary title folks consider with this metropolis and girls’s hoops. The South Carolina coach is a Philadelphian who performed for the ABL’s Richmond/Philadelphia Rage franchise from 1996 till the league folded throughout the 1998-99 season.
The Rage had only one full season in Philadelphia, taking part in on the Palestra from 1997-98, once they went 13-31. Below coach Anne Donovan, the Rage began 9-5 in 1998-99 earlier than the ABL ceased operations in December 1998.
So the Rage did not have the chance to depart a footprint in Philadelphia. However with town’s affect on girls’s basketball — UConn’s Geno Auriemma and former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw are amongst many together with Staley who’re from the Philly space — there’s a number of historical past there to attach with for a brand new WNBA franchise.
How will the growth groups be constructed? How lengthy would possibly it take for them to change into aggressive?
Andrews: Like with the Valkyries, and the upcoming growth groups in Portland and Toronto, there’ll possible be an growth draft the place Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia can choose gamers from preexisting groups within the WNBA.
With every of these groups launching in numerous years, their growth drafts might look much like the Valkyries, the place they had been the one group deciding on gamers in order that they did not have to arrange for what one other group would wish to do. Whereas particulars for Portland and Toronto’s growth draft haven’t been launched, they will possible take turns making alternatives.
Within the 2024 growth draft for Golden State, every of the opposite 12 groups might defend as much as six gamers on their rosters that might not be chosen by the Valkyries. The final time there was an growth draft for a number of groups was in 2000 for the Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm, in addition to the now-defunct Miami Sol and Portland Fireplace. In that draft, different groups protected eight gamers, and the brand new groups every chosen six gamers after which stuffed out their rosters within the draft, in free company and by way of trades.
Golden State’s technique in constructing its group was to depend on established sixth girls, in addition to a heavy worldwide presence. The Valkyries did not land any of the highest free brokers or choose to pick out their face of the franchise by the draft. It is paid off because the Valkyries have already won more games than their preseason projection. However common supervisor Ohemma Nynanin mentioned she would not consider it will essentially construct a blueprint for different growth groups.