A new franchise, owned by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, will start play in the 2025 WNBA season and play at the Chase Center in San Francisco. League commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the team at a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 5.
This announcement comes after the league has delayed expansion for years despite calls from players and fans to do so. The league hasn’t expanded since the Atlanta Dream was added in 2008. Additionally, the 2008 season was the last time the league was at 14 teams. Following the 2008 season, the Houston Comets ceased operations. Furthermore, following the 2009 season, the Sacramento Monarchs ceased operations. Since 2010, the WNBA has remained at twelve teams.
Relocation, not expansion
Since 2010, the league has seen multiple franchises relocate. The Detroit Shock relocated to Tulsa for the 2010 season. Then, in 2015, the Tulsa Shock relocated to Dallas and was renamed the Wings. In 2018, the San Antonio Stars were relocated to Las Vegas and became the Aces. There were also failed relocation sale attempts following the Comets, Monarchs (to Oakland), and Charlotte Sting (to Kansas City) folding.
Further expansion?
The debate on whether the San Francisco Bay Area expansion team will be the sole addition to the league is up in the air. The WNBA is also talking to other potential ownership groups about expansion in other cities, such as Denver, Portland, Toronto, Sacramento, Philadephia, Charlotte, and Austin, Texas. Ideally, sticking with 13 teams could be a scheduling nightmare, with the two conferences being unbalanced. A Portland franchise appears to be the most likely to be named team No. 14. The WNBA had the Portland Fire from 2000-2002.
With the amount of available interested ownership groups, there’s a possibility of the WNBA getting back to 16 teams for the first time since the 2002 season. However, a potential WNBA franchise in Toronto hit a roadblock recently. MLSE, the ownership group leading the cause to bring a franchise to Canada, recently withdrew its bidding for a WNBA team. Also, a Denver franchise was recently sidelined due to poor reviews of them playing at Magness Arena. If the ownership group can find a suitable arena for the franchise to play at, there could be a franchise playing in Colorado shortly. The ABL had the Colorado Xplosion from 1996-1998 and the National Women’s Basketball League(1997-2007) had the Colorado Chill (Fort Collins) from 2004-06.
Bay Area history
The Bay Area in California has had a successful history of women’s basketball. Stanford women’s basketball continues to be a top program for women’s basketball and a top-selling ticket. The American Basketball League (1997-99) had the San Jose Lasers, which was also owned by the Warriors’ Joe Lacob. The Women’s Basketball League (1978-81) also had the San Francisco Pioneers for three seasons and the NWBL had the San Francisco Legacy in 2006. This new WNBA franchise has a solid foundation already in place to be successful.
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