WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert pronounces an growth franchise for the San Francisco Bay Space at Chase Middle in San Francisco, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. The group will start play within the 2025 season. (AP Picture/Eric Risberg)
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert joked Sunday she’ll need to get new sneakers now that the league has added one growth group, with one other almost definitely on the way in which quickly.
Engelbert has a pair of excessive heels with all the WNBA group logos on them. The sneakers will grow to be a collectors’ merchandise in 2025 when the growth group owned by the Golden State Warriors begins taking part in. Engelbert expects so as to add one other franchise to provide the league 14 groups that yr.
“The aim is so as to add a second one, or 14th group, by 2025,” Engelbert mentioned earlier than Sport 1 of the WNBA Finals. “No more for earlier than ’25 however clearly long run. I’ve mentioned my aim is to get this league you recognize further groups and extra cities that we predict could be nice. We’ve loads of cities , which is why we didn’t announce the 14th group but.”
Engelbert talked about just a few cities together with Denver; Philadelphia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon, which is taken into account a front-runner. Portland had a WNBA group from 2000-02, taking part in its video games on the Rose Backyard earlier than the franchise folded. There was a robust ladies’s basketball fan base within the state over the previous few seasons with the success of Oregon and Oregon State on the school degree.
Town additionally has an enormous ladies’s sports activities presence with the NWSL’s Thorns, who received the league’s title final yr and three total. Portland additionally has the Sports activities Bra — the primary sports activities bra devoted to ladies’s sports activities — the place Engelbert was a part of a panel dialogue on the WNBA earlier this yr.
Different subjects broached by the commissioner:
HAMBY COMPLAINT
Dearica Hamby, the Los Angeles Sparks ahead, filed a gender discrimination criticism final month towards the WNBA and the Las Vegas Aces, saying her former group and its coach, Becky Hammon, retaliated towards her after she knowledgeable them she was pregnant.
The league investigated the unique criticism within the offseason and suspended Hammon for 2 video games.
Engelbert mentioned she “wasn’t going to touch upon too many specifics as a result of it’s clearly a pending litigation at this level with the (Equal Employment Alternative Fee). Clearly, we’ll cooperate totally, we’ll see whether or not there’s new info we didn’t have the unique time, and I’m going to let the legal professionals do the work first earlier than now we have any touch upon whether or not we’d do something after that.”
POSITIVE NUMBERS
The WNBA had robust metrics once more, with the league having its most-watched common season in 21 years and its highest common attendance since 2018. Viewership was up 21% over final yr throughout its nationwide tv companions, and the league’s common attendance of 6,615 followers was its highest because the 2018 season. The league has expanded its schedule, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic yr, going from 34 video games in 2010 to 40 this season, which helped the WNBA achieve its highest complete attendance in 13 years (1,587,488). “We had an unimaginable season with many milestones,” Engelbert mentioned. “Historic numbers, not simply on the courtroom, but additionally viewership, attendance, digital engagement.”
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