WNBA 28 expansion

[Vowelguy]

At least 10 bids!

• Philly
• Cleveland
• Charlotte
• Nashville
• Detroit
• Milwaukee
• St Louis
• KC
• Houston
• Austin

I’m gonna guess Nashville or Houston.

 

[JellyBean]

I would love to see a few more teams pop up over the next few years. Detroit is one of them, if the interest is there. Same with Cleveland. If the interest is there, a team would be nice, but the fan base and interest has to be huge especially if those teams aren't successful within a few years. Houston should be another team. Definitely get one in Nashville. I love the idea of the WNBA expanding over the years.

 

[oldhusky]

At least 10 bids!

• Philly
• Cleveland
• Charlotte
• Nashville
• Detroit
• Milwaukee
• St Louis
• KC
• Houston
• Austin

I’m gonna guess Nashville or Houston.

Houston is the biggest and rapidly growing market without a team, but I think for this league a major question is whether there is already an established base of women's basketball fans in the area.

Nashville seems to check all the boxes, a basketball history with Vanderbilt and more importantly Tennessee, the women's basketball HOF nearby, and a rapidly growing population. Austin has some of those characteristics as well as a city, and with a current base of fans following Texas, in their new supper conference.

Those two stand out to me.

 

[Kaizen]

Hartford?

 

[Millenial23]

Hartford?

We already have the CT Sun, so there def wouldn't be new team in our small state. If anything, the Sun would move to maybe Boston. Would be unfortunate, but a better market and better amenities most likely for the players.

 

[ConnMotors]

Double up to 24. By adding two teams every couple of years. The WNBA moved a bit too soon on the other expansion teams. Now they are playing what if. Adding Golden State was a smart move. Sorry Portland and Toronto but your cities just don’t compare. With the Caitlyn Clark effect this past season everyone wants a team. Portland had a chance. It didn’t work. Do did Detroit, Cleveland and Charlotte. Go to the bottom of the list. As oldhusky said; Nashville and Austin make the best sense. Adding one team brings us to 16. Keeping building off of that if the numbers continue grow or stabilize.

By the way Hartford had their chance already when Orlando relocated.

 

[Bigboote]

Double up to 24. By adding two teams every couple of years. The WNBA moved a bit too soon on the other expansion teams. Now they are playing what if. Adding Golden State was a smart move. Sorry Portland and Toronto but your cities just don’t compare. With the Caitlyn Clark effect this past season everyone wants a team. Portland had a chance. It didn’t work. Do did Detroit, Cleveland and Charlotte. Go to the bottom of the list. As oldhusky said; Nashville and Austin make the best sense. Adding one team brings us to 16. Keeping building off of that if the numbers continue grow or stabilize.

Re: the Caitlin Clark Effect, this is at least the third time there’s been a large increase in interest in the W, and each previous one has fizzled out. I think striking while the iron’s hot is a good idea, but with caution.

I have some hope that this time will be different. There will be stars with significant media presence coming out each of the next few years, but it’s still up to the league and the teams to ensure they’re marketed properly.

 

[Vowelguy]

The problem with Austin is that they plan to play at the UTexas arena. Seems very 2nd class.

Ultimately a big thing that matters, which we don’t see well, is the quality of the bids — the investors, their experience, their plans. Several of the bids are from NBA teams, which surely helps.

One plus for Charlotte this time is the proximity to SC. Now that WCBB has taken off there, gotta be more built in interest now. And if they get some ex SC players …

Milwaukee and St. Louis are both not big WCBB hubs and have summer competition with MLB. Those seem less attractive.

 

[Dillon77]

The problem with Austin is that they plan to play at the UTexas arena. Seems very 2nd class.

Ultimately a big thing that matters, which we don’t see well, is the quality of the bids — the investors, their experience, their plans. Several of the bids are from NBA teams, which surely helps.

One plus for Charlotte this time is the proximity to SC. Now that WCBB has taken off there, gotta be more built in interest now. And if they get some ex SC players …

Milwaukee and St. Louis are both not big WCBB hubs and have summer competition with MLB. Those seem less attractive.

Could you inform me: is the U of Texas arena seemingly 2nd class because it's a college arena? Or is it not a top-notch facility?
(I honestly don't know the answer to the second question.)

I read a comment somewhere thinking that Austin would be good because there isn't that much professional competition, save for the men's soccer team, which is a whole different situation.

In the same vein, Nashville also has a men's soccer team, but its two pro teams -- the Titans (NFL) and Predators (NHL) -- are dormant during most of the WNBA season, so the Summit would have that time to themselves (is that subject-verge in agreement? )

Can see Charlotte, for the reasons discussed, plus no real competition during that time.

I wouldn't mind seeing a team in Philly to increase some Atlantic rivalries, plus it's close enough to my northern NJ home, but not sure the team would be a draw in sports-saturated city that does tend to clear out in the summer to various locales. Wonder what former poster, UConnHusky, a Philly native if I recall, would've thought about chances in that city?

Stay tuned.

 

[Vowelguy]

Could you inform me: is the U of Texas arena seemingly 2nd class because it's a college arena?

Because it's a college arena.

 

[Txhoopsalot]

Austin. Moody is nice. But it only holds just under 11,000 fans for basketball (up to about 15,000 for concerts). 5 years ago that would have been great. With the growth of the game, I think that is too small.

 

[Vowelguy]

Austin. Moody is nice. But it only holds just under 11,000 fans for basketball (up to about 15,000 for concerts). 5 years ago that would have been great. With the growth of the game, I think that is too small.

11k is fine
5 current arenas plus Toronto are smaller

 

[Bone Dog]

Assuming they can find fans, more teams means more players and a draft that goes deeper into the pool of D1 talent. In recent years, the small league has felt to me like it doesn't have the numbers to fully take advantage of the growing talent pool entering college these days. It's a numbers game, and even though the average career in the W is 3.5 years, a small number of roster spots creates a lot of downward pressure.

I watched some of the 1v1 games and was quite struck by the array of talent even among the youngsters. First of all, a pair of talented veterans: Phee vs Katie Lou really showed why Phee is a superstar with a full range of offensive skills and great quickness. Rickea vs Jackie Young was also revealing. But the most interesting was Aaliyah vs Stewie, the rookie vs one of the GOATs. I mention all of this merely to suggest that the W is not in danger of exhausting the pool of talent coming out of college.

 

[MSGRET]

Could you inform me: is the U of Texas arena seemingly 2nd class because it's a college arena? Or is it not a top-notch facility?
(I honestly don't know the answer to the second question.)

I read a comment somewhere thinking that Austin would be good because there isn't that much professional competition, save for the men's soccer team, which is a whole different situation.

In the same vein, Nashville also has a men's soccer team, but its two pro teams -- the Titans (NFL) and Predators (NHL) -- are dormant during most of the WNBA season, so the Summit would have that time to themselves (is that subject-verge in agreement? )

Can see Charlotte, for the reasons discussed, plus no real competition during that time.

I wouldn't mind seeing a team in Philly to increase some Atlantic rivalries, plus it's close enough to my northern NJ home, but not sure the team would be a draw in sports-saturated city that does tend to clear out in the summer to various locales. Wonder what former poster, UConnHusky, a Philly native if I recall, would've thought about chances in that city?

Stay tuned.

The WNBA is May-Sep, while the NFL is Sep-Feb and the NHL is Oct-Apr. So if there is any overlap it is the beginning of the NFL when the WNBA playoffs are on.

 

[Bigboote]

Austin. Moody is nice. But it only holds just under 11,000 fans for basketball (up to about 15,000 for concerts). 5 years ago that would have been great. With the growth of the game, I think that is too small.

Atlanta is less than 4k, Washington is 4200. (The Mystics averaged over 10k at Capital One not too long ago, SMH.)

 

[Skeets]

Austin. Moody is nice. But it only holds just under 11,000 fans for basketball (up to about 15,000 for concerts). 5 years ago that would have been great. With the growth of the game, I think that is too small.

I think Mohegan Sun hold about 10,000 give or take. Roughly the same size as Gampel.

 

[Rowdy831]

I watched a lot of WNBA last year and the talent level was quite a bit lower than I expected it to be. Right now they don't have enough players of quality to expand and if they do before the players are there it will be a negative. The one hope would be they could get the pay up to where the European players would be motivated to come here and play.

They also need to clean up the play. When you have players like CC come in the league who are head and shoulders above those trying to guard her you can't allow the holding, hacking, pushing and just plain dirty play. With Paige coming and several others on her heels I think it will get better and be much more watchable.

 

[Vowelguy]

I watched a lot of WNBA last year and the talent level was quite a bit lower than I expected it to be. Right now they don't have enough players of quality to expand and if they do before the players are there it will be a negative. .

I disagree. There are ~10 maybe 15 players making it every year. Lots of good, popular college players are getting cut. For a sport on the rise, it’s not good.

 

[Bigboote]

I watched a lot of WNBA last year and the talent level was quite a bit lower than I expected it to be. Right now they don't have enough players of quality to expand and if they do before the players are there it will be a negative. The one hope would be they could get the pay up to where the European players would be motivated to come here and play.

They also need to clean up the play. When you have players like CC come in the league who are head and shoulders above those trying to guard her you can't allow the holding, hacking, pushing and just plain dirty play. With Paige coming and several others on her heels I think it will get better and be much more watchable.

I think the quality of the play indicates more about the quality of the management than it does the size of the league. Sometimes I just shake my head at who's kept vs. cut in the drafted class. It would also help if the W and the Euroleagues could work out their schedule conflicts.

 

[bballnut90]

Houston is the biggest and rapidly growing market without a team, but I think for this league a major question is whether there is already an established base of women's basketball fans in the area.

Nashville seems to check all the boxes, a basketball history with Vanderbilt and more importantly Tennessee, the women's basketball HOF nearby, and a rapidly growing population. Austin has some of those characteristics as well as a city, and with a current base of fans following Texas, in their new supper conference.

Those two stand out to me.

Gosh I hope they bring back the Houston Comets. They defined the early part of the WNBA. Almost 30 years into the league and they still are tied for most championships by a single franchise despite only being in the league 12 years.