“Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Athletic she hopes to identify one or two cities for an expansion franchise by the start of the WNBA playoffs in September or by year’s end at the latest. Those new teams could begin to play as early as the 2024 season, she said,” the report read. “When the new team, or teams, enter the WNBA, it will mark the long-awaited end to a process that has already reached critical mass. The Athletic spoke to more than 20 people in and around the WNBA with knowledge of league expansion and its financial picture to learn more about the league’s plans. It is an attempt to not only suss out which cities have a chance to become a future WNBA outpost, but also to understand how much a franchise is worth in a league where team values are hard to ascertain.”
Per Jennings and Vorkunov, Engelbert said that the league began with “100 possible locations” for the new organizations and has now “whittled its list to 10 to 12 cities.”
“In order to identify the most viable places for a WNBA expansion team, the league will consider a number of priorities and categories and will run each city through 25 data points within five categories: demographics, psychographics (market research or statistics classifying population groups according to psychological variables), sports benchmarks, viewership and fan data,” the report said. “For example, a city’s population, political affiliation and policies, and generational demographics will be factors, Engelbert said, as the league knows it already skews to young and female fans.”
The commissioner estimates a timeline of 18 to 24 months from when the city or cities are identified to when they begin play.
The WNBA currently has 12 teams, with six in the Eastern Conference and six in the Western Conference.
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