We won’t leave you hanging—the three lucky cities to get their own new WNBA teams are Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
But those aren’t the only new teams coming. The WNBA announced these three teams on Monday, and they’d previously announced that Toronto and Portland, Oregon will get teams in 2026, too, for a total of five new teams over the next five years. A new San Francisco team—the Golden State Valkyries—just started playing in May.
The Cleveland team will begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. All teams are unnamed at this time. The future teams will bring the total number from 13 to 18, an increase of over a third.
This is exciting for women’s basketball and all of women’s sports, pointing to not only interest but profitability to keep the league afloat. The current model allocates 20 percent of league income to player salaries, compared to the 50 percent in the MNBA (everyone, please start using this name). The highest-paid MNBA player makes 224 times what the highest-paid WNBA player and the minimum base pay for one MNBA player is equivalent to what a WNBA team spends on an entire team’s salaries collectively. Hopefully this indicator of league success will give WNBA players some additional leverage in renegotiating their contracts.
Notably, all three newly-announced cities have a predominantly Black population, more than any other group. All three newly announced teams will be owned by white men who are CEOs and investors.
Women’s basketball is thriving as a new league—Unrivaled—launched earlier this year with six teams. Many WNBA players play for the league in their off-season. The Unrivaled is women-owned and provides the highest salaries in women’s sports.
“This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women’s professional basketball,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “We are excited for what these cities will bring to the league—and are confident that these new teams will reshape the landscape of women’s basketball.”