It’s been a big couple of days for the WNBA. The league saw record ratings for Monday’s annual draft coming off an electric NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The women’s tournament saw better ratings than the men’s version this year for the first time in history, and many of the players that made the bracket so electric “graduated” to the WNBA Monday night in New York City.
Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark, who receives much of the credit for the surge of women’s college basketball and now brings that excitement to the pros, was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever. Several of her top competitors heard their names called by the 12 WNBA teams soon thereafter.
However, the draft wasn’t the only exciting news to come out of the WNBA on Monday. Seeking to capitalize on the popularity of women’s basketball as well take advantage of the excess of talent looking to play pro ball, the league announced that it intends to expand to 16 teams by 2028.
WNBA Adding One Team in 2025
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The upcoming 2024 campaign will be the final season for a 12-team WNBA. The league already announced that an expansion team has been awarded to the San Francisco Bay Area to begin play in 2025. That franchise, which will be operated by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, will be the first new team in the league since the Atlanta Dream joined the league in 2008.
However, the league is not stopping there. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that the team is looking to add a 26th team for the 2026 season. Among the locales in the running for that team are Philadelphia, Toronto, Portland, Ore., Denver, Nashville, and “South Florida.”
Hope is not lost for those locations that don’t claim the prospective 14th WNBA franchise, as Englebert told reporters that she is “confident” that the league will grow to 16 teams in short order. She said:
“It’s complex because you need the arena and practice facility and player housing and all the things you need, committed long-term ownership groups. And so, the nice thing is we’re getting a lot of calls, we’re continuing to engage with cities.”
Many WNBA teams are operated by a particular city’s NBA cousin. But NBA co-operation is not a pre-requisite to gain a franchise.
WNBA Has Come a Long Way since 1997
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The WNBA has continued to grow and improve since the New York Liberty took on the Los Angeles Sparks in the league’s inaugural game in 1997. It was a roller-coaster ride for the league in those early years, with the WNBA expanding as well as contracting in its first decade.
There was a lot of trial and error in the beginning years. Of the original eight teams, only three — the Liberty, Sparks, and Phoenix Mercury — remain. By 2000, the league grew to 16 teams, however only four of the eight initial expansion clubs remain in their original cities.
WNBA teams, as well as the league itself were owned by the NBA until 2002. After that initial arrangement ended, chaos ensued. Many teams were either sold off and moved, or simply folded. Among the casualties were the Cleveland Rockers, a WNBA charter team, which folded in 2003. Another original team, the Charlotte Sting, ceased operations in 2006. The Portland Fire and Miami Sol, both entering the league as expansion teams in 2000, were gone by 2002.
The league continued to expand despite the closures, ushering in successful teams like the Dream and Chicago Sky.
Twelve-team League Suited WNBA Well in 2010s
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The folding of two more original teams came in 2008 and 2009, bringing the WNBA to its current 12-team size and ushering in an era of stability and growth.
It came as a stunner in 2008 when the Houston Comets, the league’s original superteam, folded. Houston won the first four WNBA championships playing in front of large crowds. However, by 2008, the Comets were drawing an average of just 6,000 fans per game. The original owners lost interest and looked to sell. Unable to find a buyer, the team disbanded.
In 2009, the WNBA lost its final team and the last of its initial eight clubs when the Sacramento Monarchs closed up shop after an attempt to move to San Francisco failed.
Since then, just two teams have moved, creating the current Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces. After the WNBA may have expanded too fast initially, now there is a groundswell of support to grow based on the availability of stable markets and abundance of talent to more than fill the current 144 available player slots in the league.
Engelbert told reporters that optimism must be balanced with caution in order to not repeat the mistakes of the past. She told reporters Monday:
“Just a few years ago, we were surviving; now we’re going from survive to thrive. We want to do it at the appropriate time.”
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Tom Carothers is a sportswriter with more than 20 years of experience covering sports at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Still longing for the return of his Minnesota North Stars, he has a high pain tolerance as a big fan of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Browns, and Tottenham Hotspur.
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