Because it enjoys a TV rankings resurgence, the WNBA is increasing to 18 groups, including franchises in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit.
The league’s 15 present golf equipment embrace the Golden State Valkyries, which performed their first video games in Could 2025, in addition to groups beginning up subsequent 12 months in Toronto and Portland, OR. The Cleveland staff will start play in 2028, adopted by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.
Caitlin Clark’s current harm induced a major drop in WNBA TV rankings, however her return has seen viewership surge again towards peak ranges. A contest final week between Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces averaged 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, the community’s fifth-biggest regular-season sport.
“The demand for girls’s basketball has by no means been larger, and we’re thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA household,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated. “This historic growth 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.”
Cleveland’s new staff would be the metropolis’s second WNBA franchise. The Cleveland Rockers have been within the league from 1997 to 2003. The forthcoming membership will likely be will likely be owned and operated by Rock Leisure Group, the umbrella for REG Chairman Dan Gilbert’s sports activities and leisure properties. Gilbert additionally owns the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
Detroit can be making a return to the WNBA, with the brand new squad succeeding the Shock, which performed from 1998 to 2009. The brand new staff’s possession group is led by Tom Gores, his spouse Holly, and different traders from the realms of sports activities, enterprise, leisure, media, and finance.
The Philadelphia WNBA Workforce will likely be owned and operated by Harris Blitzer Sports activities & Leisure