The WNBA’s breakthrough 2024 season isn’t quite over yet, but the league is already preparing for an encore that is aimed at reaching even greater heights.

This season for the women’s basketball league, of course, was a deeply transformative one that included record attendance, a bevy of viewership milestones, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon becoming a national frenzy, and announcements of forthcoming teams in Toronto and Portland. 

As the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are set for Game 3 on Wednesday, the league is actively working on several major initiatives for the 2025 season. Among them: 

• Expansion: The Golden State Valkyries will start play next year, while the previously announced Toronto and Portland franchises will join the league by 2026. A 16th team could join the league in 2027. As planning for the confirmed franchises and consideration of other candidates continues, the league is spoiled for choice among potential markets.  
• A longer regular season: The 2025 campaign will increase from 40 regular-season games per team to 44. That will help extend the overall season slightly deeper into October.
• Adjusted playoff format: The WNBA Finals beginning next year will expand from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven, while home court placements will also change for the first round. The availability of charter flights across the entire season and rising interest in WNBA games have helped fuel these changes. 

“Honestly, the league’s growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball made this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the Finals, and provide more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said last week as the Finals began.

TV Talk

The league’s new TV deals, part of a comparison set of agreements for the NBA, will not begin until 2026. But those pacts are set to provide $2.2 billion over 11 years, and there will be an opportunity after three years to revisit the rights and see where they match up with the league’s growth. Next year, the WNBA will be preparing for the first of the new deals with ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon.

At the Finals, Engelbert called the deals “groundbreaking” and highlighted their ability to “grow the economics of the league and expand the reach and accessibility of our game for our fans, with additional WNBA media deals to come.”

The WNBA Finals should have enough drama on the court to make this the league’s most-watched championship round since moving to the best-of-five game format in 2005.

The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are deadlocked at one game apiece, with the Finals shifting to Minnesota for the next two games Wednesday and Friday. A winner-take-all Game 5 would be played back in New York on Sunday.

Last Thursday’s opener was the first WNBA Finals Game 1 in history to surpass one million viewers, with the audience on ESPN coming in at 1.14 million. Ratings for Sunday’s Game 2 on ABC—one of many playoff matchups scheduled head-to-head against NFL action—have not been released.

The mark to beat is 728,000, which was the average across the 2023 WNBA Finals, as the Las Vegas Aces defeated the Liberty three games to one to win their second consecutive title. That figure is No. 8 all time, behind six best-of-three series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the inaugural one-game championship round in 1997. Next year, the WNBA Finals will expand to a best-of-seven format.

Caitlin Clark Effect Lingers

Despite an early first-round exit from ratings magnet Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, the WNBA playoffs still had serious momentum entering the Finals as the league’s most-viewed postseason in 25 years, with games averaging 970,000 viewers. That number was up 142% from 470,000 in 2023, which was the most-watched WNBA playoffs in 16 years.

This year’s semifinals alone were already higher than last year’s WNBA Finals, averaging 850,000 viewers across nine games.

Despite announcing three expansion teams since last September, commissioner Cathy Engelbert has stated the WNBA wants to add one more by 2028—a 16th franchise that would tie the record high the league had from 2000 to 2002.

At a press conference last Thursday, Engelbert said there are about “10 to 12 cities” that the league is evaluating for an expansion franchise. 

She added that the league is in “no rush” to add another team due to the three new additions, though the goal would be for the 16th franchise to join the league by 2027 and no later than 2028.

What Are the Options?

Engelbert has mentioned several candidates in the past for a potential expansion team, including Philadelphia, Nashville, Denver, and somewhere in South Florida. 

Last month, Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker, during a public plan to discuss a potential downtown arena for the 76ers, announced the franchise is “expected to submit a bid” for a WNBA expansion team. Engelbert repeated Thursday that Philadelphia is “on the list” of expansion candidates.

Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami may also explore bids, Sports Business Journal reported last month. Former WNBA president Donna Orender is part of an investment group looking interested in a bid for Jacksonville. The front office of the NBA’s Magic is also reportedly “studying” a potential team in Orlando. 

Both Orlando and Miami had WNBA franchises in the early 2000s. The Miami Sol lasted just three years in the league, folding in 2002, while the Orlando Miracle relocated to Connecticut in 2003 and became the Sun.

According to Engelbert, the winning bid will have the same qualities as the other three expansion franchises, with an emphasis on the arena and practice facility.

“It’s all the same types of things I’ve been talking about for the other three around [the] arena, practice facility, player experience, committed long-term ownership group, city, demographics, psychographics, Fortune 500 companies based there,” Engelbert said. 

Known Expansion Teams

There will be 13 teams starting next season as the Golden State Valkyries, who are still without any players, but named former Las Vegas Aces assistant Natalie Nakase their head coach last week, will join the fray. 

Golden State is owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also run the NBA’s Warriors and reportedly paid an expansion fee of $50 million. The two Golden State teams will share the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Earlier this year, teams in Toronto and Portland were announced, with both set to join by 2026.

The Toronto team will be owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by Toronto-based billionaire Larry Tanenbaum. Unlike Tanenbaum’s involvement with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment—which owns the NBA’s Raptors, NHL’s Maple Leafs, and MLS’s Toronto FC—this team is not under the MLSE umbrella. The reported $115 million price tag for the franchise includes both the expansion fee and the cost of a new practice facility.

Portland’s WNBA team will not share the same owners as the Trail Blazers, its NBA counterpart, but the ownership group still has ties to both the NBA and local sports. The Bhathal family, owners of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and co-owners of the NBA’s Kings, were awarded the franchise in September. It’s unclear how much they shelled out for the team.