On Wednesday morning, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the WNBA would be adding a 15th team to its roster, with the league awarding Portland, Oregon its own expansion franchise.
Portland joins Golden State and Toronto as the latest WNBA additions, as the league capitalizes on this season's surging popularity. Golden State will begin play next season, with Toronto and Portland set to tip off in 2026.
The Rose City was an obvious choice to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who said, "Portland has been an epicenter of the women’s sports movement and is home to a passionate community of basketball fans."
Notably, this is not Portland's first WNBA team. The city originally hosted the Fire, which competed for three seasons before folding in 2002.
The expansion team will be primarily owned by the Bhathal family, who also recently purchased the NWSL's Portland Thorns.
A'ja Wilson adds WNBA rebound record to 2024 stats
Aces superstar A'ja Wilson added yet another feat to her 2024 WNBA MVP campaign on Tuesday, breaking sidelined Chicago rookie Angel Reese's single-season rebounds record in Las Vegas's 85-72 win over Seattle.
Wilson, who didn't know she'd claimed the record until asked about it in the post-game press conference, reacted with nonchalance. "That's cool," she told reporters. "I don't hunt rebounds, so it's not something that's always on my mind... I'm focused on putting the ball in the hoop."
Her explanation had head coach Becky Hammon visibly rolling her eyes, saying she's had to remind Wilson that "the other half of [her] job is to freaking rebound."
Ultimately, Wilson acknowledged that the record is "a blessing," saying "this league is tough, so if my name can be in the record books in some sort of way, it's a blessing."
Rebound record is Wilson's third WNBA feat in one week
Wilson's written her name in the WNBA record books three times in the last six days. Her latest rebound accomplishment comes just two days after Wilson became the first-ever WNBA player to score 1,000+ points in one season, and less than one week after she shattered the league's single-season scoring record.
Tuesday's win also handed the defending back-to-back champion Aces at least the fourth playoff seed. That top-four spot secures them home court advantage for their first postseason round.
Earlier this week, the WNBA Players Union (WNBPA) spoke up against controversial comments made by league commissioner Cathy Engelbert on CNBC's Power Lunch on Monday.
When asked to address concerning social media exchanges regarding superstar rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese "where race... where sexuality is sometimes introduced into the conversation," Engelbert dodged the question, choosing instead to frame what she described as a "rivalry" in a positive light.
"The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry," said the commissioner, comparing Reese and Clark to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. "That's what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don't want everybody being nice to one another."
WNBPA calls out subjects WNBA comm'r Engelbert dodged
After players began calling Engelbert out online, the WNBPA issued a statement denouncing racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
"Here is the answer that the Commissioner should have provided to the very clear question regarding the racism, misogyny, and harassment experienced by the Players," the statement read.
There is absolutely no place in sport — or in life — for the vile hate, racist language, homophobic comments, and the misogynistic attacks our players are facing on social media.... Fandom should lift up the game, not tear down the very people who bring it to life."
WNBA stars address Engelbert's CNBC comments
Some of the league's top players took to the press to reinforce the WNBPA's words, including Aces forward Alysha Clark.
"It's taken a darker turn in terms of the types of comments and the vitriol that's coming through to the players, and it's not okay," Clark told ESPN. "I wish [Engelbert] would have just said that — 'It's not okay.'"
Liberty star Breanna Stewart echoed Clark's sentiments, saying "The way that the fans have surged, and especially behind Caitlin and Angel coming to this league, but also bringing a race aspect to a different level — you know, there's no place for that in our sport."
Engelbert later responded to the Players Union's statement in a post on X, writing "there is absolutely no place for hate or racism of any kind in the WNBA or anywhere else."
The WNBA is officially expanding to Toronto, with the league announcing its 14th franchise early Thursday.
Kilmer Sports Ventures has been awarded the team, said WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert at a press conference attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and others.
"Growing internationally, I’ve been trying to think through next steps on a global platform," Engelbert told the Associated Press ahead of the official announcement. "It helps us reach new audiences and bring in new partners. The thing I love about going to another country is that the young girls and boys get to see professional basketball for women is important, too."
The CBC was the first to report on the expansion franchise back on May 10th.
With the Golden State Valkyries set to begin play next year, the Toronto franchise will begin play in 2026. The goal, per the WNBA, is to then add two more franchises by 2028 for a total of 16.
Toronto will play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, which holds 8,700 seats. On occasion, the team will play games in Scotiabank Arena. The WNBA has previously hosted sold-out preseason games at Scotiabank Arena and Edmonton’s Rogers Place. There are also plans to play games in Vancouver and Montreal, according to majority owner Larry Tanenbaum.
This will be the first WNBA franchise outside of the United States, and joins PWHL Toronto as just the second professional women’s sports team in the city.
"Our Toronto sports franchises are thriving but, we have been missing one critical piece — women’s professional sports," Tanenbaum told the AP. "The world is finally taking notice of something that’s been there all along — the immense talent, passion and competition in women’s sports.
"I saw an opportunity and knew we were in the right place at the right time to bring Canada’s first WNBA team to Toronto. And now we have, making sports history."
Similar to Golden State, the Toronto franchise paid a $50 million expansion fee. They’ve also committed to building a dedicated practice facility, but will train at the University of Toronto’s Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport in the meantime.
"Women’s sports is good business," Tanenbaum said. "Just look around — it’s not a moment, but a movement and it’s just the beginning."
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert admitted to a "faulty rollout" of the new charter travel initiative on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Ahead of Tuesday's season opener, it was announced that the only teams flying private this week would be Indiana and Minnesota. The announcement came mere days after the league made a new charter flight program for all WNBA teams public. At the time, they said it would be implemented "as soon as we have the planes."
But as two teams out of 12 chartered to their first games of the season, others like the Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky were forced to fly commercial.
A town hall meeting between Engelbert and the players was held in response to the confusion. Everything from the league's new media rights deal to private travel was covered in the meeting, with players submitting their questions ahead of time. Sky center Elizabeth Williams told Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile afterwards that cross-country flights were prioritized.
"Flights that are across the country like [the Lynx] going to Seattle, crossing multiple time zones, or flights that usually require a connection, those were the priorities," Williams said. "That’s why New York didn’t go to DC with a charter, but Minny goes to Seattle."
What’s unclear under that metric is that the Atlanta Dream played the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday, which could technically be classified as a cross-country flight.
On Tuesday, rookie forward Angel Reese shared a photo on her Instagram story lamenting the league's use of commercial flights.
"Just praying that this is one of the last commercial flights the Sky has to fly," Reese posted. The team still has at least three commercial flights awaiting them in the near future.
"Obviously, I think all teams should be able to get chartered," Reese told the Sun-Times. "But I know moving forward... going in the right direction, being able to have some teams [chartering] is cool. Within the next weeks, everybody will be flying charter, which will be really good."
On Thursday, Lindsay Schnell of USAToday Sports confirmed that the league intends to have all teams on charter flights by May 21st.
A group led by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum will bring a new WNBA franchise to Canada, CBC Sports reported early this morning.
Set to begin play in 2026, the team will be owned and operated by Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports Inc. Tanenbaum is a minority owner and chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argos, and Marlies. He originally explored an expansion team via MLSE, but was turned down by other members of the board.
The Toronto addition will be the WNBA's 14th team. It follows the Bay Area's WNBA Golden State, which will debut in 2025.
An official announcement is expected May 23rd in Toronto, according to reports.
"We continue to engage in productive conversations with interested ownership groups in a number of markets but have no news to report at this time," a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement. Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports group, meanwhile, told CBC Sports that his organization has “no update at this time.”
In April, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that Toronto was among the cities being considered for WNBA expansion.
The WNBA has a growing footprint in Canada, as the league's held wildly successful exhibition games north of the US border for the last two seasons.
In 2023, a preseason matchup between Chicago and Minnesota sold out Toronto’s 19,800-capacity Scotiabank Arena. This past Saturday, the league drew more than 16,000 fans to Edmonton for a preseason showdown between LA and Seattle.
The Toronto team will reportedly play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,000-seat arena which is currently home to the Marlies as well as Toronto’s PWHL franchise.
Charter flights are on the horizon for the WNBA, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying on Tuesday that the league will provide teams with full-time private travel services beginning as soon as this season.
The move is set to address years of player safety concerns, among other issues. Engelbert told AP Sports Editors that the league aims to launch the program "as soon as we can logistically get planes in place."
The initiative is projected to cost around $25 million per year over the next two seasons.
The WNBA has previously provided charter flights on a limited basis, including during the postseason and when teams were scheduled to play back-to-back regular season games. Individual owners seeking to independently provide their teams with private travel — such as the New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai back in 2022 — faced significant fines for using unauthorized charters.
While players and team staff have been calling for league-wide charters even before Caitlin Clark and other high profile rookies joined the league, Engelbert has routinely cited steep year-to-year costs as the reasoning behind sticking to commercial flights.
However, the WNBA's surging popularity means increased visibility, and a subsequent uptick in security concerns — especially when it comes to big name newcomers like Clark — has Englebert reconsidering her previous decision.
WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike called the move "transformational," and credited the WNBPA as well as the league for its implementation.
"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike told ESPN. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.
"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court."
Aces coach Becky Hammon called the immediate response to the charter announcement "great" but noted that there are still kinks to be worked out.
"What it all looks like, we’re still gathering information, we don’t know," she said Tuesday.
Several players emphasized the importance of safety, highlighting how last season the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while traveling commercial.
"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said.
"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Mercury player Natasha Cloud added. "We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."
Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the league had said it would charter flights for the playoffs and back-to-back games via a program introduced last year. The latest news, however, promises that teams will also be provided charters to and from all regular season games.
"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner told ESPN. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."
Could Serena Williams co-own a WNBA team in the near future?
Speaking with CNN on Monday, Williams expressed her interest in that potential — as well as the mounting enthusiasm for women’s sports around the world.
"I think women’s sport is having a moment that it should have always had," Williams said. "I feel like tennis has had its moment. It’s international, and it’s huge, and it’s always gonna be there.
"Now it’s time to lift up other sports — women’s soccer, women’s basketball — there’s so many other sports that women do so great, let’s put it on that platform. Women’s basketball is getting there, and it’s arrived."
When asked if she had any interest in adding a WNBA team to her roster of ownership stakes, the tennis great welcomed the idea. "I absolutely would be," Williams said. "With the right market, I would definitely be super interested in that."
"There is no risk — women’s sport is exciting," Williams added, citing the 2024 NCAA women's tournament's record-breaking viewership as evidence. "People are realizing that it is exciting to watch, so it's an overly safe bet."
Williams may not need to wait long to act on that bet. On Monday, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that she is "pretty confident" the league will expand to 16 teams — up from its current 12 — by 2028.
The goal, she said, is to reach 14 by 2026. Oakland's Golden State is already on track to launch the league's 13th team in 2025. The move will mark the WNBA's first new franchise since the Atlanta Dream debuted in 2008.
"It's complex because you need the arena and practice facility and player housing and all the things," Engelbert said at a press conference before Monday's WNBA draft. "You need committed long-term ownership groups, and so the nice thing is we're getting a lot of calls."
Engelbert went on to name a few of the cities behind those calls, saying that the league continues to engage in discussions with Philadelphia, Toronto, Portland, Denver, and Nashville, as well as South Florida.
"These can either take a very long time to negotiate or it can happen pretty quickly if you find the right ownership group with the right arena situation," Engelbert added.
The Commissioner's 16 team goal is not only good news for WNBA fans, it's great news for current and future WNBA players. At 12 teams with just 12 roster spots each, the league is held to a total of 144 players for any given season. An abundance of fresh talent coming up through the NCAA ranks has put pressure on the organization to make room for more worthy competitors, and four additional teams might be just the ticket.
The WNBA doesn’t plan to stop expanding anytime soon.
After announcing the Bay Area as the league’s 13th team last week, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Sunday that the goal is to add another team by 2025.
“Not to add more than that because when you run an expansion draft … obviously if you add 24 roster spots to a league of 144, that’s a lot, and we know we have the talent and the depth of talent in the league and those that haven’t made rosters and coming out of the NCAA system,” she said. “So the goal is to add that 14th team, not more, for ’25.
“But obviously longer term, I’ve said my goal is to get this league additional teams in additional cities that we think would be great.”
Reports have indicated that the second expansion city for 2025 will be Portland, although Engelbert wouldn’t confirm that in her press conference Sunday before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. She said that the WNBA has entertained “a lot of interest” from prospective cities, and they intend to announce the second team by the end of the year.
“It’s a really good problem to have,” she said.
The league continues to examine data — from demographics to the arena situation, viewership and fandom — to determine which cities will be the strongest markets for expansion. On Sunday, Engelbert listed off six other cities, including Denver and Portland, which the league has already visited. The WNBA has also been in discussions with Philadelphia, Charlotte, Austin and Nashville.
“We have to be very thoughtful in the way we’re thinking about it,” Engelbert said. “Now it’s whether we can find the right — as you say, the right mix of the ownership group with the arena situation and everything else that’s important as part of long-term investing in women’s sports and in a WNBA team.”
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride settled into a folding chair after scoring 19 points in her team’s win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday. It would have been the perfect time for McBride to sit in front of reporters and TV cameras and get her flowers.
But instead, McBride delivered a message: There would be no basketball questions answered. She would discuss player safety, mental health and chartered flights.
“Sorry,” McBride said on the way out. “We will be back to normal interviews on Tuesday, but this was important.”
McBride wasn’t the only player who chose to highlight issues plaguing the WNBA over the weekend. Elizabeth Williams of the Chicago Sky did the same in the lead-up to her team’s clash with the Phoenix Mercury.
Absent from that contest was Brittney Griner, who will miss an unspecified amount of time to focus on her mental health.
The decision once again brought travel issues in the WNBA to the forefront of conversation. Griner’s safety when traveling has been a concern since she returned to the United States in December after being wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for 10 months. The Mercury star has already endured one incident at an airport this season, increasing players’ calls for chartered flights. Under the current CBA, teams are obligated to fly commercial for competitive advantage reasons, with the exception of the playoffs, back-to-back games and the Commissioner’s Cup championship.
The WNBA is in a period of growth, with this season breaking viewership and attendance records throughout the league. Coinciding with that growth are conversations about expansion, as the league hopes to add multiple teams in the next few years.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert says the league has done data analysis on “over 100 cities,” taking into account demographics, potential corporate partners and whether or not there is already an established women’s basketball fanbase. Places with strong markets for women’s NCAA programs are of particular interest, she says.
“It’s kind of a multi-dimensional look,” Engelbert said. “I’d say a lot of different things, but fandom and corporate partners and people need to show up and get in seats. We need to find those markets.”
Players don’t necessarily want expansion, at least not until other issues are solved. And the top concern for players right now is the ability to fly charter.
“I believe that until we have all of our priorities in check as a league, as the 12 teams that we have now, it’s hard to expand and to give resources somewhere else,” McBride said. “I think charters is number one.”
Engelbert believes the league can improve in multiple ways simultaneously.
“I think we can balance all of it,” she said on Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena.”I think we have been chipping away at some things that I know are important to the players. But we’re still going to be fiscally responsible as well and make sure that we feel confident that the growth of the league will match the benefits we can get.”
Part of the reason Engelbert is so adamant about expansion is because she believes it could increase media rights deals for the league. Bigger deals mean more money to use on player benefits like chartered flights.
“If you bring in more expansion teams, your media rights will be more valuable because now you’re bringing in more cities to draw that fandom in,” she said. “That’s what media companies are looking for is broad reach.”
Engelbert cited the NBA as an example. When the league was in its 27th year (where the WNBA is now), players flew commercial, but that changed as the league signed more lucrative media rights deals.
“The only reason the men have (chartered flights) is because of media rights deals,” Engelbert said. “That is it.”
Engelbert added that she wants to get chartered flights for the players, but she wants them in perpetuity. And the league, she says, is getting to a place financially where that will be feasible.
“When I came into the league, I would have done it,” she said. “But I would have bankrupted the league in a year or two.
“It will cost $25-to-30 million for a full 40-game season for 12 teams, and more if we add teams. So you chip away at it until you can afford it, and how do you afford it? Media rights.”
The WNBA currently has deals with ION and ESPN running through 2025. They’ve also partnered with CBS/Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, Amazon Prime, NBA TV and Twitter to broadcast games.
In addition to travel, Engelbert addressed a couple of other issues facing the league on Sunday.
Roster expansion
Each team in the WNBA technically has 12 roster spots, making room for 144 total players. In order to get more players in the league, roster expansion — rather than team expansion — is one possibility. But it’s not one that Engelbert agrees with.
While it seems like an easy solution, the commissioner says the situation would be more complex than it appears. She worries about playing time and player development.
“It doesn’t drive anything for the league,” she said of roster expansion. “So I’d rather do a development plan for players, rather than just adding them to a roster and not getting much playing time or experience.”
Unrivaled
Former UConn stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier recently announced the creation of Unrivaled, a 3×3 league that will take place during the WNBA’s offseason. It joins Athletes Unlimited as alternative options for players who have routinely gone overseas in the offseason to play and earn more money.
It also gives players an option that doesn’t interfere with the league’s prioritization rule, which penalizes players for missing the start of the WNBA season and makes offseason commitments difficult to navigate.
Engelbert says the WNBA supports both Unrivaled and AU.
“I think it’s a great idea. Anything that promotes the game of women’s basketball,” she said. “I would like us to become the center for all women’s basketball, whether it’s in our season or outside of our season.”
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
WNBA players are having a hard time acquiring tickets for the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday in Las Vegas, and Aces star Kelsey Plum is bringing attention to the issue.
Plum, last year’s All-Star Game MVP, tweeted at WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Thursday after Aces teammate Alysha Clark expressed her frustration with the ticket situation.
“All I’m trying to do is go support my teammates and friends at the All Star game…Hope I can find some tickets,” two-time WNBA champion Alysha Clark wrote on Twitter, tagging Engelbert.
Teammate and All-Star captain A’ja Wilson joked that Clark should say she’s “gotta get something out your locker and I’ll come grab you.”
Say you gotta get something out your locker and I’ll come grab you 😂😂 https://t.co/L1QlzQRVRP
— A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) July 13, 2023
For Plum, the issue runs deeper.
“ALL WNBA players should get a ticket to the all star game/skills challenge, I’m sick of my people being treated second class,” she wrote. “The league gotta be better, there is no excuse. @CathyEngelbert I’m sure we can fix this before the weekend….”
ALL WNBA players should get a ticket to the all star game/skills challenge, I’m sick of my people being treated second class. The league gotta be better, there is no excuse. @CathyEngelbert I’m sure we can fix this before the weekend….
— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) July 13, 2023
The Aces have four players named to the All-Star Game this year, with Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young joining Plum and Wilson. All will be playing for the same team after Wilson, serving as co-captain alongside Breanna Stewart, drafted them last weekend.
Stewart’s team includes New York Liberty teammates Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot as well as Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Satou Sabally and Nneka Ogwumike.
The WNBA Skills Challenge on Friday night will feature four sets of All-Star teammates, with Gray and Plum representing Team Aces.
Plum has become increasingly outspoken about WNBA issues in the past year. She corrected what she called a “huge misconception” about the WNBA pay gap last November, and this week she expressed her dismay at Wilson not being selected for the NBA’s WNBA 2K24 cover.