Is more WNBA expansion on the horizon? Our experts explain the league’s growth

When Cathy Engelbert became WNBA commissioner in 2019, one of her main and immediate goals was to expand the league. The former Deloitte executive was never shy about her aspirations for the WNBA and its potential economic and footprint growth. In 2022, the league announced a $75 million capital raise, and in late 2023, the league announced that the Golden State Valkyries would become its 13th franchise. In the last year, the league announced it would further expand to Toronto and Portland, which previously had a WNBA team from 2000-02.

On Monday, that expansion talk … expanded. The WNBA announced the addition of three more franchises that will join the league by 2030, with each franchise paying a league-record $250 expansion fee. Cleveland will be the first team to enter the league, joining in 2028. Detroit will begin play in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. By then, the league will have a record 18 teams.

“It’s not every day you get to make history, but today we do it three times over,” Engelbert said. “This expansion marks far more than an increase in teams, it’s a transformational investment in the future of women’s sports. With more teams, more roster spots and more scale and visibility, the WNBA is building on a wave of momentum that is only growing stronger.”

Plenty will have to get sorted out as the league continues to grow, but here are answers to key questions regarding the expansion process, the league’s three most recent selections, and which city might be awarded a team next.

The Cleveland Rockers folded in Dec. 2003.

The Detroit Shock relocated to Tulsa in Oct. 2009.

Now, both cities will have WNBA teams again 🧡 pic.twitter.com/Fm6j5gvbne

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 30, 2025

Why were Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia selected?

Bids for the WNBA’s latest round of expansion were due at the end of January, with more than 10 markets submitting formal bids to take part in the process. Engelbert said the ensuing months were used as an evaluation period, and before officially deciding on any of the three cities, the league settled on the number of cities it wanted to grant expansion. “We wanted to make sure that everyone knew the path, the strategy on a long-term basis through the end of the decade to get to ’18,” Engelbert said.

The league looked at roughly 25 factors before deciding on each of the markets. Franchise arena, practice facility, player experience amenities, ownership commitment, and city demographics and market research were just a few. Engelbert said all three cities scored high on every factor.

All three markets include NBA arenas, and ownership groups that are committed to providing players with first-class facilities. Detroit, led by Tom Gores, is building a new facility for its WNBA team. Gores is also the owner of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.

Philadelphia’s ownership group will be led by Josh Harris, who also owns the NBA’s 76ers. “This team deserves its own facility. We gotta sort out where that is,” he said. Cleveland’s WNBA team will be owned and operated by Dan Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment Group, which also owns the NBA’s Cavaliers. The Cavaliers’ practice facility is just over a decade old, and the WNBA team will be moving into the space currently occupied by Cavs when the NBA team moves into its new facility in 2027. Engelbert said that among the three teams Cleveland is the “most ready,” and the franchise announced it had 1,000 initial seat payments in the first hour after the news was released.

All three groups have ties to the NBA, and although that might have been a requirement, Engelbert cited the arenas, facilities, and investments each has or will make in the future to infrastructure and player experience as notable features of their respective bids.

How will the Cleveland and Detroit franchises honor their WNBA history?

There’s a delicate balance that these franchises will need to walk as fans will expect some acknowledgement of the history of women’s basketball in that city, as well as the rebirth of a new WNBA team in a revitalized era of women’s sports. Cleveland was home to the Rockers from the league’s inception in 1997 until 2003, while Detroit was the home for the Shock from 1998 until 2009.

Nic Barlage, the CEO of Cleveland’s Rock Entertainment Group, said: “We will never ignore the history of what we had with the Rockers,” but he added, “our city is in a different state than it was at that time.” That will impact how the franchise thinks about its brand and identity.

Arn Tellem, the vice chairman of the Pistons, said the Detroit WNBA team’s ownership and investment group were all Shock fans who attended games while the franchise was in the Motor City.

It’s unclear how that history will impact the brand decisions made in terms of team name, colors and jersey design, but expect each group to reach out to alums. While other teams have honored alums of previous ownership groups and cities — notably, the Las Vegas Aces retired Becky Hammon’s No. 25 San Antonio Stars jersey in 2021 — it’s not hard to see why Shock alums could feel more connected to a Detroit franchise honoring them and their history than the Dallas Wings. Both Detroit and Cleveland had at least one former alum from the original franchises present at Monday’s unveiling in midtown Manhattan.

How will expansion impact the WNBA schedule?

The 2025 WNBA season already features a league-record 44 games, the maximum under the current collective bargaining agreement. The new length of the season will have to be collectively bargained, and it’s possible, if not likely, that not only will teams continue to play more games, but that the WNBA will have to expand its footprint in the sports calendar as more teams enter.

It also wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see WNBA return to an emphasis on conferences — though that may require re-alignment as Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia are all in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

It is also unclear what future expansion draft processes will look like and how the process for each new team might differ from what the Valkyries took part in last year, and what Toronto and Portland are experiencing now.

“Obviously, we’re very cognizant that you can’t bring them all in at once,” Engelbert said. “It seemed to make sense to take ’27 off and then bring these teams in one a year.”

How will expansion impact the ongoing CBA negotiation?

Monday’s expansion news comes as the league and the WNBA Players Association are in ongoing talks on a new CBA. WNBPA president Terri Jackson had said that by the mid-July All-Star break she hoped the two sides would see significant progress on a new deal. Though Engelbert did not provide a progress update on the talks on Monday, she said she did not want the ongoing negotiations to impact something that the league had been working on for multiple years. “When you’re a sports league, you need scale. How do you get scale? More teams,” she said.

Engelbert said that she wanted to make the league continue to capitalize on its recent surge in interest. She added that the league is still not finished with its “transformation.”

The WNBPA said in a statement to The Athletic: “Today’s expansion news reinforces what players, fans and countless metrics have already proven: The WNBA is thriving and a great investment. As the league grows, it’s essential we secure a CBA that ensures players fully share in the success they drive.”

How will expansion impact the league’s media rights deal?

Last year, the WNBA signed the richest media rights deal in women’s sports league history. The value of the deal, which will come into effect in 2026, will be around $200 million annually over 11 years with Disney/ESPN, NBC and Amazon. (The total value of the WNBA’s current media rights with all of its partners is about $50 million this year.)

As the league negotiated its “tranche 1” deals, its prospective media rights partners were aware of the possibility of future expansion. The WNBA was mindful of the league’s growth trajectory as it was negotiating and put in a number of provisions to reflect the league’s upside. The WNBA also has the ability to initiate a “look-in” provision in three years, which will increase the value of the agreement. Engelbert said Monday that three new teams in three new media markets will only increase the WNBA’s media rights inventory, and in turn, the value of the WNBA’s media rights.

Is this growth unprecedented?

Sort of. Between the inception of the WNBA in 1997 to the start of the 2000 season, the league doubled in size from eight to 16 teams. However, the ensuing decade featured a significant amount of contraction as, ultimately, the WNBA settled at 12 teams in 2009 and stayed there until the Valkyries joined this season to bump the team total to 13.

Significant growth at the onset of a pro league is pretty common. Between the start of the 1946-47 NBA season and the 1949-50 season, the NBA expanded from 11 to 17 teams. Like the WNBA, it then contracted for a prolonged period before experiencing significant growth starting in the late 1960s.

The most similar recent example is probably MLS. The league was founded in 1993 and began play in 1996 with 10 teams. A decade later, the league added six teams between 2007 and 2011, including in Toronto, Philadelphia and Portland — the three markets adding WNBA teams during this rapid growth.

Where will these teams play?

WNBA Cleveland will play at Rocket Arena, home of the Cavaliers, while WNBA Detroit will play at Little Caesars Arena, home of the Pistons. Part of why the Philadelphia team is entering the league in 2030 is related to their future home arena. The NBA’s 76ers are set to move into a new arena in South Philadelphia by 2031. Harris said that once the team announced its arena plans — which it did last winter — the organization’s ownership group turned its attention to WNBA expansion. Harris said that although they are “sticking” to the 2031 arena date they previously announced, “We’re putting some pressure on ourselves now to get it open in 2030.”

“If we can’t get it open in 2030, which we’re not promising, then we’ll obviously play in the Xfinity Mobile Arena,” Harris said, referring to the 76ers current stadium (Wells Fargo Center) which will be getting renamed in September.

What will future expansion look like?

The stated goal had been for the league to get to 16 teams by 2028. Now that the W is at 18, don’t expect this kind of hyper-growth to continue at this rate. It will take some time for the league to settle into this size and learn how to operate at this level.

However, when growth does come next, expect Houston — which had a team from 1997-2008 and won the first four WNBA titles — to be at the top of the board. Though Engelbert didn’t disclose the full list of cities that had bid but not been awarded a team, she singled out Houston and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.

“One of those I wanted to shout out because they have such a strong history in this league and they’re a great ownership group — Houston. … That’s the one we have our eye on,” she said. “Tilman has been a great supporter of the WNBA, and we’ll stay tuned on that.”

Engelbert stopped short of announcing any news regarding Houston expansion, but she later added: “Houston would be up next for sure. There might be opportunities there.”

Nashville, Kansas City, Austin and Charlotte were among the other cities who put in bids for teams but were not awarded with them on Monday.

(Photo: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)