What St. Louis needs to make a competitive bid for the WNBA

With 2024 being a big year for women’s sports, especially basketball, talk of a potential 16th WNBA team has sparked the interest of NBA player Jayson Tatum. Alongside investors Richard Chaifetz and David Hoffman, the Boston Celtics star and St. Louis native is hoping to bring a WNBA franchise to St. Louis.

“It’s a really interesting thing that, for this 16th team, [the WNBA is] opening the bidding in this public way, because for teams 13, 14 and 15, it sort of happened behind a curtain,” said Noah Cohan, assistant director of American Culture Studies at Washington University. “I think it’s a good thing for St. Louis, regardless of the final outcome.”

Having a big name attached to the effort is important, Cohan added. “A local billionaire doesn’t excite fans about the prospect of what they’re up to the same way Jayson Tatum does.”

In a similar effort, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is working with the ownership group of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Kansas City Current to bring the WNBA to Kansas City.

One of the main considerations for the WNBA in picking a location for another team is infrastructure. If St. Louis were to be chosen, the 10,600-seat Chaifetz Arena would be a likely contender.

“A lot of WNBA teams play in similarly sized facilities and are able to do quite well in selling tickets at that size,” Cohan said.

Another consideration is an adequate practice facility, which has become more important in the wake of WNBA players opting out of a recent collective bargaining agreement.

“The players did that because they want to go negotiate a new one, and rightly so, because with the new media rights deal, they should make a lot more money than they have been,” Cohan said. “But because of the history of the collective bargaining agreements that they’ve signed, their salaries have been relatively suppressed.”

The top level talent in the WNBA makes around $250,000, so the teams are currently on relatively even footing when it comes to recruitment.

“One way to attract free agents is to have really dynamic, exciting facilities,” he said.

In addition to discussing St. Louis’ WNBA bid, Cohan joined St. Louis on the Air to share a brief history of women’s basketball in St. Louis.

While there is a rich basketball culture in the region at the local level, the city’s history at the top level of men’s and women’s leagues died out by the early 1980s.

“There will be an extra burden on the organizers of the St. Louis bid to show the WNBA that this is a basketball town,” he said. “I firmly believe that it is, but there’s not that sort of public evidence for it.”

For more information on St. Louis’ women’s basketball past, present, and future — including the St. Louis Surge and the Women’s Basketball League team St. Louis Streak — listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.

“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.