The WNBA is bringing an enlargement crew to Philadelphia in 2030.
The league revealed the information on Monday, saying Cleveland and Detroit as two different cities getting groups, in 2028 and 2029, respectively. All three bids are connected to NBA franchises, which the WNBA had been vocal about eager to see.
“Philadelphia is a metropolis with unmatched ardour, wealthy basketball custom, and an unwavering love for its groups,” stated WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, a Collingswood, N.J. native. “It’s solely becoming that this iconic sports activities city is lastly dwelling to a WNBA franchise. From neighborhood courts to historic faculty arenas, basketball runs deep in Philly — and we’re proud to deliver the W to a metropolis that’s able to embrace it.”
The crew, pending approval from the WNBA and the NBA Board of Governors, will probably be co-owned by Sixers house owners Harris Blitzer Sports activities & Leisure (HBSE), with Comcast holding a minority stake. The pair’s efforts to bid for a WNBA franchise have been revealed of their settlement to construct a brand new area in South Philly again in January — a stunning ultimate twist in HBSE’s preliminary plans to construct an area in Heart Metropolis’s Market East.
The Sixers confirmed to Billy Penn that the WNBA crew would play within the new South Philly area, when it’s prepared in 2031. Except that timeline is moved up, we assume the crew will be part of the Sixers for the ultimate 12 months on the Xfinity Cellular Area (aka the Wells Fargo Heart, which will probably be renamed on Sept. 2).
“It’s solely proper that this metropolis lastly will get the WNBA franchise it deserves, and we’re humbled to assist usher in a brand new period of Philadelphia basketball,” stated HBSE co-owner Josh Harris, who additionally owns the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Philadelphia would be the league’s 18th crew. This season, the Golden State Valkyries have been the newest enlargement franchise to affix the league. The Toronto Tempo and a yet-to-be-named Portland crew will probably be becoming a member of in 2026.
Detroit and Clevland beforehand had WNBA groups, with the Cleveland Rockers folding after the 2003 season, and the Detroit Shock relocating to Tulsa, then ultimately changing into at this time’s Dallas Wings. Philly’s final girls’s skilled basketball crew, the Philadelphia Rage, performed within the now-defunct American Basketball League from 1997 to 1998. The crew included Philly legend and present College of South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley.
“This enlargement marks way over a rise in groups. It’s a transformational funding in the way forward for girls’s sports activities,” Engelbert stated. “With extra groups, extra roster spots, and extra scale and visibility, the WNBA is rising on a wave of momentum that’s solely rising stronger.”
Philly’s bid, spearheaded by comic Wanda Sykes and her spouse Alex Niedbalski-Sykes, originated in 2021. Past Staley, different large names talked about as probably related to the bid embody Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant, actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, tennis legend Billie Jean King, and the Roots drummer Questlove.
One identify that has been floated for the franchise? The Philadelphia Sisters.
Esther Rosen, a grassroots advocate for a Philly WNBA franchise who runs the favored ”WNBA Philly” social media accounts (to not be confused with the brand new PhilaWNBA accounts that the crew launched at this time) has already submit a number of reactions to the information on her varied accounts.
Watch Celebration PHL, one other grassroots advocacy group making an attempt to deliver extra girls’s skilled groups to Philly, additionally revelled in at this time’s replace.
“Watch Celebration PHL’s aim since its inception was to show to the WNBA (and NWSL) that Philadelphia is deserving and excited in regards to the alternative to affix one of many fastest-growing leagues in girls’s sports activities,” the group stated. “We bought precisely what we fought for and now the eyes of the nationwide sports activities setting are on our metropolis.”
The group, based by firefighter Jen Leary, has been elevating funds to arrange a everlasting area for the town’s first-ever girls’s sports activities bar. The group’s newest updates revealed they’re approaching $50,000 funding for their very own gathering area.
The WNBA crew will be part of the Philadelphia Surge, a girls and gender-expansive professional final frisbee crew that simply completed its third season within the Premier Final League, on the quick listing of Philly’s girls’s skilled sports activities groups.
So far as who may very well be on or teaching Philly’s WNBA crew, Stawley dominated herself out of a possible teaching function when requested whereas a visitor on the podcast “Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce.”
“I’d slightly be an proprietor … after I’m an proprietor, I can most likely contact extra folks,” the three-time NCAA champion coach stated.
It’s most likely too early to say who may very well be drafted or moved right into a crew in 2030, however Harris has already set down a marker of what the franchise’s ambitions will doubtless be then.
“For me and the group, bringing the WNBA to Philly wasn’t only a nice-to-have. It was an obligation,” he stated Monday. “Philly deserves the very best basketball crew, that pulls the very best gamers on the planet and competes on the highest stage. Now we have a possibility to construct one thing particular: A crew that women throughout the area can root for and be impressed by.”