The league has attracted investors’ interest.
The Women’s National Basketball Association had its most impressive season as investors poured money into the business, people bought tickets in higher numbers and the TV audience increased. Franchise values have increased as well. The league is in an expansion mode and as many as a dozen business groups want to spend big money to get a franchise in the league. The commissioner of the WNBA Cathy Engelbert said her business is in no rush to add another expansion team as the WNBA will debut a team in San Francisco in 2025 and in Toronto, Ontario and in Portland, Oregon in 2026. The Toronto team will be marketed as Canada’s team even though a good number of Canadians have some resentment of the city of Toronto which is the communications and financial capital of Canada.
Engelbert has mentioned several markets in the past that could qualify for the expansion team. Those markets include Philadelphia, Nashville, Denver, and somewhere in South Florida. Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker, during a public plan meeting to discuss a potential downtown arena for the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers franchise, announced Harris-Blitzer Sports Entertainment, which owns the 76ers franchise, is “expected to submit a bid” for an expansion team. Engelbert confirmed that Philadelphia is “on the list” of expansion city candidates. Jacksonville and Orlando could explore expansion bids. Former WNBA president Donna Orender is part of an investment group exploring the possibility of making a bid for an expansion team in Jacksonville, Florida. The ownership of the NBA’s Orlando Magic is doing the legwork and is “studying” the feasibility of placing a team in Orlando. What is Engelbert looking for? “It’s all the same types of things I’ve been talking about for the other three around arena, practice facility, player experience, committed long-term ownership group, city, demographics, psychographics, Fortune 500 companies based there.”
San Francisco’s WNBA team starts play in 2025.
