NEW YORK — The WNBA is increasing to 18 groups over the following 5 years, with Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia all set to hitch the league by 2030.
Cleveland will start play in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia the season after, assuming they get approval from the NBA and WNBA Board of Governors. Toronto and Portland will enter the league subsequent yr.
“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 enlargement is a strong reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of expertise throughout the sport, and the surging demand for funding in girls’s skilled basketball.”
Enlargement franchises Portland and Toronto, introduced because the 14th and fifteenth WNBA groups a yr in the past, start play in the course of the spring of 2026.
All three new groups introduced Monday have NBA possession teams. Every paid a $250 million enlargement payment, which is about 5 occasions as a lot as Golden State dished out for a crew a couple of years in the past. All three groups may even be investing extra money by way of constructing follow services and different such facilities.
“It’s such a pure match that when you have already got this basketball-related infrastructure, these methods, cultures that you just discover to achieve success, mixtures of personnel that you just discover to achieve success,” mentioned Nic Barlage, CEO of Rock Leisure Group and the Cavaliers. “Extending that into the WNBA, is only a pure subsequent development, particularly if in case you have a need to develop like we do.”
Each Cleveland and Detroit had WNBA groups up to now and Philadelphia was the house for an ABL crew.
“It is a large win for Detroit and the WNBA,” Detroit Pistons proprietor Tom Gores mentioned. “As we speak marks the long-hoped-for return of the WNBA to a metropolis with deep basketball roots and a championship custom. Detroit performed a key function within the league’s early progress, and we’re proud to reignite that legacy because the WNBA ascends to new heights. Our plans will convey new vitality, funding and infrastructure to our metropolis and the WNBA, and extra assets to our group.”
Detroit sports activities stars Grant Hill, Chris Webber and Jared Goff can have minority possession stakes within the crew.
The Cleveland and Detroit possession teams mentioned the Rockers and Shock — the names of the earlier groups — could be thought of however they’d do their due diligence earlier than deciding on what the franchises can be known as.
“Rockers can be part of the combo for certain, however we’re at this level, we’re not going to decide to a model identification as a result of we wish to actually get into it with our followers, perform a little research, be very thorough and considerate in that course of,” Barlage mentioned.
The Detroit and Cleveland groups will play on the NBA arenas that presently exist, whereas Philadelphia is planning on a brand new constructing that can be accomplished hopefully by 2030.
“We inform town it’s going to open in 2031. We’re hoping for 2030,” mentioned Harris Blitzer Sports activities & Leisure Managing Associate and co-founder Josh Harris, who owns the 76ers. “So we’re attempting to underpromise and overdeliver. However, proper now it’s 2031, in order that we’ve a yr hole, you understand. We’ve bought the Xfinity heart, the Wells Fargo, they’ll play there.”
Including these three groups will give the league extra pure rivalries with one other crew on the East Coast and Detroit and Cleveland close to one another.
“I believe there’s some nice historic rivalries within the NBA amongst these cities and, I believe that can carry over to the WNBA,” Detroit Pistons vp Arn Tellem mentioned. “I might love nothing extra to have a rivalry like we do within the NBA with Cleveland and Indiana, Philadelphia and New York and all these nice cities and, and I believe we are going to.”
Different cities that bid on groups that didn’t get them embody St. Louis; Kansas Metropolis, Mo.; Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Houston; Miami; Denver; and Charlotte, N.C.
“We didn’t know the demand could be the place the demand ended up once we ran the method final fall into the winter,” Engelbert mentioned. “Given the very excessive demand and provide, we wished to guage, too, as a result of we’re very cautious about, you understand, ensuring we’re balancing the variety of roster spots, the variety of groups.
“However one factor I’m very struck by as we get into a brand new media deal, because the media market evolves, you understand, being in these three large basketball cities goes to assist from a media perspective, a company companions perspective.”
All of the metrics, equivalent to attendance, tv rankings and sponsorships, have been on the rise the previous couple of seasons.
“You’re seeing the important thing efficiency indicators across the enterprise, however then additionally simply the communal influence of getting a girls’s skilled sports activities crew,” Barlage mentioned. “The biggest rising phase of our Cavs youth academy, which serves 60,000 children throughout the state of Ohio and upstate New York, the quickest rising phase is women. You recognize, it’s rising at a 30% clip yr over yr in participation charges. And so for us to have the ability to create function fashions, to have the ability to create symbols of progress, to create having ambassadors throughout the group representing all of these items.”
