WNBA: Fever head coach talks schedule challenges, solutions

It’s no secret that the WNBA schedule is tight this season. There are 44 games over 17 weeks for 13 teams, an arrangement that has so far resulted in complaints, exhaustion and injuries—from everyone.

The 2025 season grind is part of the game. That’s what Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White told reporters before Wednesday night’s win against the Phoenix Mercury. August comes with a strong sense of “urgency,” she said, as teams began to stare down the playoffs and potential championship runs. “I talked about how the timing between games has gotten shorter and shorter over the past few years,” she continued.

Unfortunately, White added, the way she sees it is that “there is no right answer” to the schedule conundrum, contrasting the challenges of WNBA’s current situation the NBA’s more navigable set up, explaining, “When you’re an NBA team with 30 teams, it’s different than the cadence of games within the W, with 13 teams, because of how you have to travel.”

NBA teams can play significantly more games in the same time zone, she added, whereas WNBA teams often are moving from coast to coast—and back again. “When we add more teams and you have more games in regional locations, I think that helps,” White proposed. “I don’t think it’s any secret that we’re going to have to expand the footprint and we’re going to have to put a little bit more cadence between the games.”

She further emphasized. “I think where we are right now is a function of where we’ve been, and what we have to look forward to is expanding that in all areas, and making sure that we’re putting everything, including health and wellness for players, at the forefront and as a priority.”

The latter is a league-wide concern, especially as increased attention has been focused on injuries throughout the WNBA this season—whether or not the rate of injury is actually higher. The Fever played last night’s game without Caitlin Clark, who remains out with a lingering groin injury and whose timeline for return is projected to be near mid-August.

“I don’t think there’s any way that we can continue to add teams to games in the same footprint—we’re growing,” White noted. “And it’s a natural part of growing. Some of the things that we’re seeing are growing pains, but at the same time, I think when you grow, you’ve got to continue to expand … and in some ways, get creative. I think that’s the natural progression for our league.”

The WNBA is set to add two new teams—the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire—in 2026 and will tally 18 teams by 2030 with teams in Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia.