The WNBA made a major announcement on Monday that three new growth franchises could be becoming a member of the league within the coming years: Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. That trio will convey the league to 18 groups, surpassing the earlier excessive of 16 groups from 2000-02.
“The demand for girls’s basketball has by no means been greater, and we’re thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA household,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned. “This historic growth is a strong reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of expertise throughout the sport, and the surging demand for funding in ladies’s skilled basketball.
“We’re excited for what these cities will convey to the league — and are assured that these new groups will reshape the panorama of ladies’s basketball.”
Because the mud settles from the WNBA’s gorgeous announcement, listed below are seven large questions on growth and the league’s future.
1. Is it an excessive amount of, too quickly?
The WNBA began exploring growth years in the past, early in Engelbert’s tenure as commissioner, however the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortened 2020 and 2021 seasons knocked the league off monitor. By 2022, Engelbert and the league had raised $75 million in capital, and growth talks quickly started once more in earnest.
In 2023, the league introduced the Golden State Valkyries, the primary growth franchise for the reason that Atlanta Dream in 2008. The Valkyries started play this season and have been a serious success, each on and off the courtroom. Extra bulletins adopted in 2024: the Toronto Tempo and still-to-be-named Portland staff, which can take the courtroom in 2026 and convey the league to fifteen groups. All through this course of, Engelbert has been steadfast on rising the league to 16 groups by 2028, which can occur when Cleveland joins that yr.
Whereas there was restricted curiosity from possession teams early within the 2020s, that each one modified because the WNBA exploded in recognition because of Caitlin Clark and a star-studded 2024 rookie class. Impulsively, bids for the sixteenth franchise have been pouring in from throughout the nation. As an alternative of turning all however one in every of them away, the league determined to push the boundaries and leap to 18 groups.
On the one hand, it is arduous to fault the league. Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia will all pay record-setting $250 million growth charges — 5 instances what Joe Lacob paid as an growth payment for the Valkyries simply two years in the past. How is the league presupposed to move up $750 million? “Take the cash and determine all the pieces else out later” is an comprehensible mindset.
Then again, it is truthful to surprise if that is all coming too quick, too quickly. Earlier than any of those groups have been introduced, Engelbert spoke repeatedly about not desirous to rush growth. Now, instantly, the league readjusted its growth goal on the fly and added two further groups nobody was anticipating. And earlier than all however one of many preliminary growth groups has taken the courtroom.
The final time the league quickly expanded like this was in its first years of existence. After beginning with eight groups in 1997, it grew to 10 groups in 1998, 12 groups in 1999 and 16 groups in 2000. The 16-team period lasted simply three seasons earlier than contraction began. By 2010, the league was again right down to 12 groups, which is the place it remained till this season.
The league is in a a lot better place now than it was within the early 2000s, and it’s miles too early to begin speaking about groups folding. However even when that is unlikely to occur, there are going to be extreme rising pains from including this many groups in such a brief period of time. Already, we’re seeing points in Portland. The franchise just lately fired its president and nonetheless doesn’t have a common supervisor, or perhaps a staff identify, with lower than a yr to go till tip-off.
We nonetheless do not know the way leaping to fifteen groups will have an effect on the league’s on-court product within the 2026 season, when the expertise can be diluted. That subject can be amplified by 2030 with three extra groups within the combine. All through nearly all of its existence, the league’s restricted variety of groups, roster spots and video games has created a particularly aggressive atmosphere. Rosters are stacked, few groups are actually irrelevant every season and the overwhelming majority of video games matter in some form or type. In just a few years, that can now not be the case, no less than to not the identical extent. How will all the key stakeholders — gamers, house owners, followers and tv companions — react?
The prudent path would have been to see what kind of affect the 14th and fifteenth groups made subsequent season, and react accordingly. As an alternative, the league determined to strike whereas the iron was scorching, and can now need to reside with the dangers that brings.
2. How will consecutive growth drafts work?
Growth groups imply growth drafts. As soon as uncommon, they’ll change into an annual a part of the league calendar within the coming years. Here is a take a look at the growth draft schedule, together with Golden State’s which was already accomplished:
- 2024: Golden state growth draft
- 2025: Toronto and Portland twin growth draft
- 2027: Cleveland growth draft
- 2028: Detroit growth draft
- 2029: Philadelphia growth draft
5 growth drafts in six years is, frankly, outrageous. These are vital occasions that require in depth work to arrange for, and alter the course of every particular person group in addition to the league as an entire. Now, groups are going to need to undergo the method yr after yr. That may require great foresight and powerful communication with gamers.
This yr’s upcoming twin growth draft for the Toronto and Portland franchises can be notably fascinating. Which staff will get the primary choose? Will they alternate picks or will it’s a snake format? What number of gamers will the opposite 13 groups have the ability to shield? How will the truth that the overwhelming majority of gamers are hitting free company in 2026 affect all the pieces?
Wanting additional down the road, how will further groups (and presumably further roster spots) affect future growth drafts? It’ll be very troublesome for the league to have uniformity throughout all of those drafts, which may create some unintended penalties.
3. Convention realignment and/or playoff format modifications?
The WNBA has had an Japanese Convention and Western Convention since its inception, however they’ve largely been irrelevant for the reason that adoption of a brand new playoff format in 2016. Since that season, the highest eight groups within the league have made the playoffs, no matter convention affiliation.
That change made sense in a league the place eight of the 12 groups made the playoffs, and has been an awesome success. No staff can skate by means of the playoffs as a result of one convention is weaker, and the Finals have pitted the very best towards the very best. For the reason that change, the Finals have gone the space 4 instances and there have solely been two sweeps.
As new groups proceed to reach, the primary order of enterprise can be convention realignment.
The Valkyries have been positioned within the Western Convention, and are anticipated to be joined by Portland subsequent season, whereas Toronto is predicted to affix the Japanese Convention. That would depart the West with eight groups and the East with seven, however the imbalance — which already exists — is not going to be a problem due to the present playoff format.
However what’s going to occur when Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia be a part of? These are conventional Japanese Convention groups, and it would not make sense to have 10 groups within the East and eight within the West. Would a present East staff be moved to the West in 2030? Geographically, the Chicago Sky are the westernmost staff within the East, and could be the one logical alternative.
Extra importantly, what’s going to occur with the playoff format?
Will the variety of playoff groups improve? There was no improve this yr with the addition of a thirteenth staff, but it surely’s simple to think about a world the place the variety of playoff groups grows after growth. In the event that they do increase the variety of playoff groups, when would that occur? Once they get to 16 groups in 2028? Or would they wait till all 18 have arrived in 2030? These are vital questions with some stacked draft courses on the horizon.
Moreover, will the league proceed to make use of this present system the place conferences are irrelevant for playoff berths and seeding? Or would they return to a extra conventional playoff format that crowns an Japanese Convention champion and Western Convention champion and has them meet within the Finals? In that future, convention realignment would change into a particularly necessary subject.
4. A brand new schedule?
Final yr, Engelbert introduced two large modifications to the schedule: the common season would broaden from 40 video games to 44 video games — probably the most allowed underneath the present collective bargaining settlement — and the Finals would broaden from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven.
The early response from the gamers has not been optimistic. Phoenix Mercury star Satou Sabally mentioned it was “not likely accountable” of Engelbert to extend the quantity of video games. New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud mentioned that Engelbert “wants to increase the season,” and added, “in order for you the very best product on the ground, we want correct time to relaxation and recuperate.”
Let’s evaluate 2023 to 2025, two seasons through which there have been no main worldwide competitions that pressured the league to regulate. In 2023, the season was 152 days lengthy. The utmost size of the 2025 season could be 156 days. Every staff is enjoying 4 extra video games in a season that will solely be 4 days longer. Naturally, which means fewer days off and fewer relaxation.
Satou Sabally’s critique of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert raises big questions about future scheduling
Jack Maloney
The Valkyries’ arrival was one of many fundamental causes the league expanded the common season to 44 video games in 2025. It stands to motive, then, that that league will need to play much more video games because the variety of groups will increase. If the season stays at 44 video games by 2030, when there are 18 groups, every staff would have solely have 10 different video games to schedule after satisfying a home-and-home with the opposite 17 opponents. That may imply fewer rivalry video games and fewer possibilities for followers to see the highest stars.
There are main obstacles to enjoying extra video games, nonetheless.
Firstly, the gamers must agree to extend the utmost variety of allowable video games within the new collective bargaining settlement, which is predicted to be in place for the 2026 season. Past that, the gamers and the league must be keen to regulate the present Could to October timeline. As issues stand, there may be not sufficient time to play greater than 44 video games, particularly throughout Olympic years.
Whether or not both will occur stays to be seen. It is easy to see the gamers agreeing to extra video games if the timeline was expanded, however that’s no assure. For one, many gamers play in different leagues throughout the offseason. The vast majority of the leagues abroad run from October to April, give or take just a few weeks, whereas Unequalled, the upstart 3-on-3 league co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, goes from January to March. As well as, quite a few WNBA groups share arenas with NBA teams. Add in NHL and faculty basketball video games and dates replenish quick outdoors of the summer time. And that is to say nothing about TV slots.
It’s, directly, troublesome to think about the WNBA transferring past the Could to October timeline it has used for thus lengthy and the WNBA nonetheless enjoying 44 video games with 18 groups in 2030. One thing must give.
5. What concerning the CBA talks?
Final yr, the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation introduced that it could decide out of the present collective bargaining settlement. The present CBA will run by means of the top of the 2025 season, and a brand new one is predicted to be in place for the 2026 season.
“We’re prepared to steer transformational change — change that goes past ladies’s sports activities and units a precedent for one thing larger,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike mentioned in October. “Opting out is not nearly greater paychecks — it is about claiming our rightful share of the enterprise we have constructed, enhancing working circumstances, and securing a future the place the success we create advantages at present’s gamers and the generations to come back. We’re not simply asking for a CBA that displays our price; we’re demanding it, as a result of we have earned it.”
How will the league’s determination to broaden to 18 groups affect the labor talks? In Engelbert’s good world, under no circumstances. She instructed reporters on Monday that she had beforehand indicated to WNBPA govt director Terri Carmichael Jackson that it was attainable they might transfer past 16 groups with their head of state growth push.
“We did not need CBA negotiations to affect one thing that we have been engaged on for a few years” Engelbert mentioned. “If you’re a sports activities league, you want scale. … I speak to company companions, particularly on the retail aspect, that say, ‘Hey, we’re in 100 cities and also you’re solely in 12.’ That resonated with me. The extra cities we’re in, the extra they’ll carry our merch, extra demand there can be for it and [more] fandom we construct.”
Even when the league had signaled to the gamers that a further two growth groups was a risk, it is arduous to think about how that might haven’t any affect on the CBA negotiations. Current feedback from Sabally appear to point that the gamers aren’t thrilled by the current information.
“Within the union we received a proposal from the league which was actually a slap within the face,” Sabally said on Tuesday. “I believe we actually need to put an emphasis on the gamers in our league proper now. I like to see the league rising, including these groups in Philly, Detroit, like how wonderful that the league can develop, however how cool would it not even be to have growth on the rosters.”
Sabally additionally requested for a deal with the groups which have all the pieces arrange proper now and known as out “the groups that discover excuses repeatedly to lack funding into their gamers.”
6. Workforce names: a return to custom or a brand new period?
Although not as necessary as a few of the different questions concerning growth, it will likely be fascinating to see what these growth groups are known as, in addition to what coloration schemes and logos they undertake.
There have been WNBA groups in Cleveland and Detroit earlier than. The Rockers performed in Cleveland from 1997 till 2003, once they folded resulting from monetary points. The Shock performed in Detroit from 1998 till 2009 earlier than being relocated to Tulsa, and later to Dallas.
Each the Cleveland and Detroit possession teams mentioned they might take a look at reclaiming their outdated names, however may even take into account new choices. For Detroit, specifically, it will likely be fascinating to see if the staff reclaims it is earlier franchise historical past, which incorporates three championships, or if that can stay with the Wings.
Getty Photographs
It could be cool to see the Rockers and the Shock return, however it could even be comprehensible if these new possession teams need to begin contemporary.
As for Philadelphia, that’s a completely new arrange, and the “naming course of will embrace enter from the Philadelphia fanbase and basketball communities,” the staff introduced.
7. Might there be additional growth?
Lastly, it is value questioning if the WNBA is finished increasing.
Within the brief time period, the reply is sure. The league’s preliminary purpose was 16 groups by 2028. Now, it’ll have 18 by 2030. Over the following few years, the league will need to see how issues go, each on and off the courtroom, earlier than making any selections about further groups.
Lengthy-term, although, it could not be a shock to see the WNBA develop to 20-plus groups. Almost a dozen cities submitted bids for this most up-to-date spherical of growth. St. Louis, Kansas Metropolis, Austin, Texas, Nashville, Houston, Miami, Denver and Charlotte have been amongst these not chosen. It is unlikely the curiosity from these cities will subside.
On Monday, Engelbert singled out a kind of cities: Houston, the previous house of the Comets. It is easy to deduce from her feedback that Houston could be subsequent in line for future growth.
“There are a number of cities that clearly bid, and a kind of I wished to shout out, as a result of they’ve such a powerful historical past on this league and their nice possession group, is Houston,” Engelbert mentioned. “The Houston Comets have been simply a tremendous one, the primary 4 inaugural championships within the WNBA. So I’d say that is the one, clearly, we now have our eye on. (Proprietor) Tilman (Feritta) has been an important supporter of the WNBA, and we’ll keep tuned on that.”