WNBA Commissioner Lists New Cities as Expansion Possibilities; Goal to Have 16 Teams

The WNBA will consider Philadelphia, Toronto, Portland, Nashville and South Florida as locations for expansion teams, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Monday ahead of the draft, per the Hartford Courant's Emily Adams.

Denver, among other cities and regions, will also be considered for expansion teams, per ESPN's Alexa Philippou.

Engelbert said the WNBA has a goal of adding a new team by 2026 and wants to reach 16 teams by 2028. In October, the league announced its 13th team will play in the Bay Area, beginning in 2025.

The league originally had eight teams in its first season in 1997 but has since added four more. The two most recent WNBA teams are the Chicago Sky, who joined in 2006, and the Atlanta Dream, who joined in 2008.

Of the 12 current WNBA teams, five are associated with an NBA franchise: the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury and Washington Mystics. The Bay Area team coming in 2025 will be affiliated with the Golden State Warriors.

With that history, Philadelphia, Toronto, Portland, Denver or South Florida could be prime candidates for expansion with NBA teams already in those locations.

But the WNBA could take a different route and expand outside an NBA market, giving a city like Nashville a professional basketball team.

The news of expansion comes ahead of a loaded WNBA draft night. Collegiate stars such as Iowa's Caitlin Clark, LSU's Angel Reese and Stanford's Cameron Brink will begin their professional journeys Monday.

With so much talent coming into the league, it seems like the perfect time to expand and give players who otherwise wouldn't make it to a WNBA roster in such a competitive field a chance to compete.