Per USA TODAY Sports, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is set to announce the WNBA will be expanding to the Bay Area on Thursday. After months of speculation, the WNBA has been cryptic on social media. An expansion team would mark the thirteenth team in the league. Perhaps there will be two cities announced for expansion.
10.5 pic.twitter.com/J4qlLOrg6E
— WNBA (@WNBA) October 4, 2023
The WNBA will expand in the Bay Area
Months after the speculation, the WNBA will announce an expansion team in the San Fransisco Bay Area, per USA TODAY Sports. Once having 16 teams, the league is down to 12. Since the inaugural season in 1997, there have been six defunct franchises, including the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, Miami Sol, Portland Fire, and the Sacramento Monarchs. In 26 years, three current franchises have relocated several times, including the Connecticut Sun, Las Vegas Aces, and the Dallas Wings. Previously the Orlando Miracle, they relocated to Connecticut in 2003. Before the Dallas Wings were the Detroit and Tulsa Shock. Before the Aces move to Las Vegas in 2018, the franchise operated as the Utah Starzz and the San Antonio Silver Stars. The WNBA has made several abstruse posts on social media, insinuating a change is near.
With the news of the #wnba expansion tomorrow
— Sara Jane Gamelli (@SaraJGamelli) October 4, 2023
Here’s a clip of Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on the expansion and charter flights on August 6 in Brooklyn, New York. pic.twitter.com/xheqwFlf6k
Two team expansion?
Prior to the matchup between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces on August 6, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert expressed her desire for expansion, along with the trajectory of the league's growth, and charter flights. Michael Voepel, of ESPN reports that Engelbert is aiming for a two-team expansion growth in the near future. With the increase in players and talent, having only twelve teams limits the number of roster spots. Besides the Bay Area, the WNBA has looked into the following cities for expansion: Portland, Toronto, Nashville, Charlotte, Austin, and Denver.
"Obviously, we're working very hard on expansion, " said Engelbert. "As I said, and everybody knows, this is really something I think we need to do. Not just because of opening up, you know, potentially 12-24 roster spots. We need more than 12 teams. We need to be in some big cities in this country, where our demographics and psychographic, and all our data and information shows that there's some great markets out there for WNBA Basketball."
The Golden State Warriors will be granted an expansion team in 2025
Not official, Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press has confirmed that the Golden State Warriors will be granted an expansion team in 2025. The Associated Press has reported that the WNBA Commissioner will be making an announcement in the Bay Area tomorrow.
It's evident Engelbert will only work with investors who will provide teams with adequate facilities, in addition to longevity. " I don't want to bring an owner in this league who is going to be in the bottom quartile as it relates to player experience," she said. "They've got to be in the top quartile. In fact, they should be at the top." said Engelbert (Associated Press).
The Golden State Warriors are co-owned by Peter Guber and Joe Lacob. Since the 2014-2015 season, the Warriors won four NBA titles, recently in 2022 against the Boston Celtics. In Lacob's tenure, he ended the Warriors 40-year drought, and led Golden State to seven straight playoff appearances. In 2019, the Warriors were named "Franchise of the Decade," and will be remembered as one of the most notorious dynasties in NBA history. Peter Guber was heavily involved in the groundbreaking of the Chase Center, with a focus on family and fan experience.
The San Fransisco Bay Area seems the most logical choice for an expansion team. Aside from the warriors, the area has several sports teams with winning accomplishments. The San Fransisco Giants have three World Series wins since 2010, and the San Fransisco 49ers have won five Super Bowls in team history.
The WNBA had record viewership and attendance this season
Excited to "capitalize off NCAA popularity," the WNBA currently has media partnership deals with ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, and ABC. "There's a whole transformation of economic model for women's sports", the Commissioner told the press. "It's all about media rights. If you look back in history, and I ask you all, I'm happy to give anyone an economic lesson about how the men got their benefits and pay. It was all the multi-billion-dollar media rights fees deal, so I am very optimistic," Engelbert told the media.
The 2023 WNBA season brought record viewership and attendance. Per WNBA PR, viewership was up 21 percent this season, and attendance up 16 percent. The WNBA social media engagement was up 96 percent from 2022. The overall attendance was the highest it's been in 13 years.
The WNBA is "the longest tenured women's professional league in the country, by double any other," said Engelbert. The Atlanta Dream was the most recent expansion team, which came in 2008.
The Dallas Wings partnered with the Dallas Mavericks in early August. The expansion of the WNBA under the Golden State Warriors could be extremely beneficial to the league.
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Sara Jane Gamelli is a full-time Sportswriter at Ballislife, and a Sports Content Creator on Twitch and TikTok. She has a focus on the NBA, WNBA, NCAA Basketball, and the NFL. Sara Jane currently resides in Connecticut with her Cat and Dog. SJ has her undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut in Economics, with a minor in business administration.
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