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Basketball fans have long been clamoring for expansion to come to the WNBA, and the league appears ready to grant that wish.
The WNBA released a video Wednesday on social media teasing that an announcement is coming Thursday regarding potential expansion:
WNBA @WNBA
10.5 pic.twitter.com/J4qlLOrg6E
The league, which currently has 12 teams, actually began teasing fans with a series of posts on Tuesday responding to requests for expansion:
WNBA @WNBA
Heard you https://t.co/ASyu4SwMxh
WNBA @WNBA
Say pretty please 🤭 https://t.co/4ju3BhDcx1
WNBA @WNBA
https://t.co/t7ShjFWwpU pic.twitter.com/PDGWD9IG3P
On Sept. 26, The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II reported that the Golden State Warriors were “close” to bringing a WNBA expansion franchise to the Bay Area.
“We have had productive conversations with the WNBA and look forward to the possibility of being a part of the league’s expansion plans,” the Warriors said in a statement responding to Thompson’s report. “However, it would be premature to assume any potential agreement has been finalized.”
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has previously said that she’s hoping that the league will expand by two teams by 2025 at the latest. However, she noted that the league will not rush the process.
“I have not been shy about saying we need to expand, but we want to do it through when we can find the right ownership groups with the right arena situation in the right cities that we think will be supportive,” Engelbert told Boardroom last year.
More recently, Engelbert named the cities under consideration for an expansion team during the Sports Business Journal Brand Innovation Summit in June, listing San Francisco, Denver, Austin, Philadelphia, Nashville, Charlotte and Toronto.
The league’s most recent expansion franchise was the Atlanta Dream in 2008. It sounds like the Dream will soon be supplanted by a new team or two.
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