Fever's Sophie Cunningham criticizes Detroit, Cleveland as WNBA expansion cities: 'You want to listen to your players'

Daniel Chavkin

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Fever's Sophie Cunningham criticizes Detroit, Cleveland as WNBA expansion cities: 'You want to listen to your players' image

The WNBA is leveraging its popularity to expand in the near future, but not everybody is thrilled with the league's choices.

With Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia all slated to get WNBA teams by 2030, the league opted to add two teams in the Midwest to go along with Indiana, Minnesota, and Chicago. However, Fever forward Sophie Cunningham was skeptical that the WNBA made the right expansion choices.

Cunningham expressed her opinion ahead of the Commissioner's Cup Championship on Tuesday night when the Fever and Lynx will face off in a Midwest battle. Here's what Cunningham had to say.

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What did Sophie Cunningham say about Detroit and Cleveland?

During Fever practice on Tuesday, Cunningham addressed the WNBA's decision to expand to the Midwest. While the forward currently plays for a middle-America team in Indiana, she isn't too impressed by the league adding two more teams in the area.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play? Where are they gonna get excited to play and draw fans?" Cunningham said. "I don’t know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland],"

In the WNBA's announcement on Monday, the league revealed that Austin, Nashville, Houston, Miami, Denver, and Charlotte were also considered for expansion. Cunningham named Miami, Nashville, and even Kansas City — close to her hometown of Columbia, Mo. — as locations where she thinks players would be more excited to play.

Detroit, of course, was once home to the Shock, who won three WNBA titles before relocating to Tulsa in 2008, while Cleveland had the Rockers from 1997 to 2003.

The cities of Detroit and Cleveland responded to Cunningham on social media, expressing their displeasure with her comments.

"The last time we were home to a WNBA team (Detroit Shock) we ranked top five in attendance for five straight seasons, No. 1 in attendance for three straight seasons and set a single-game attendance record of 22,076 fans at Game 3 of the 2003 WNBA Finals," Detroit's message said.

Cleveland took a more clever approach, trolling Cunningham about how Caitlin Clark enjoyed the city when she was there for the Women's Final Four.

"We’re proud to have been chosen to host a WNBA team and any player who comes here will feel that legendary passion Cleveland sports fans show our teams!" the city's message said.

On Thursday, Cunningham clarified her comments by saying she didn't mean to disrespect the WNBA's history in these cities or their fanbases.

"All I was really getting at was broadway, the off-court lifestyle," Cunningham said. "I think it would be fun to get some teams outside of the NBA market...I think people totally misread situation. I would never speak down upon middle-class, blue-collar people."

Cunningham signed a one-year deal with the Fever for the 2025 season after playing her first six seasons in Phoenix with the Mercury.

Daniel Chavkin

Daniel Chavkin is a Digital Content Producer for The Sporting News. A 2018 graduate from the University of Maryland, he has previously written for Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and NFLTradeRumors.com.