The WNBA is growing in popularity, which is allowing the league to expand significantly over the next five years.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced on Monday that the league will add three more teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia to go along with the Portland and Toronto teams that will begin play in the 2026 season. That doesn't even include the Golden State Valkyries, who are currently in their inaugural season this year.
The league stagnated at 12 teams between 2009 and 2025, but will balloon up to 18 teams in the near future. Here's a timeline of when to expect these teams to begin play.
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WNBA expansion timeline
The WNBA is adding two new teams next year, as Toronto and Portland will join the league, but that won't be the end of expansion. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the WNBA will add three more teams in Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia over the next five years.
The plan is for Cleveland to enter the league in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030, which will bring the number of WNBA teams up to 18.
🚨HISTORIC MOMENT ALERT🚨
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 30, 2025
The W is leveling UP — three new teams, three new cities, one unstoppable future. ⭐
Say hello to our newest expansion teams:
🟣 @clevelandwnba - coming 2028
🔵 @DetroitWNBA - coming 2029
🔴 @philawnba - coming 2030
New energy. New legacies. New era.… pic.twitter.com/6ZXaHPxkEw
"The demand for women's basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family," Engelbert said in a statement, via the Associated Press. "This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league's extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women's professional basketball."
Detroit was home to the Shock from 1998 to 2009, winning three WNBA titles in that span, before the team relocated to Tulsa. In 2016, that organization moved again to Dallas, and is currently known as the Dallas Wings.
Cleveland also had a WNBA previously, as the Cleveland Rockers played from 1997 until 2003, before the organization folded operations. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has never had a WNBA organization, but it was home to an ABL team in the 1990s.
While the Rockers and Shock will be considered as names for the Cleveland and Detroit organizations, both ownership groups will consider alternatives before making a decision. Additionally, all three new organizations will be owned by groups who own the NBA teams in their city.
Several cities were considered for expansion including Austin, Nashville, Houston, Miami, Denver and Charlotte.
"We didn't know the demand would be where the demand ended up when we ran the process last fall into the winter," Engelbert added. "Given the very high demand and supply, we wanted to evaluate, too, because we're very careful about, you know, making sure we're balancing the number of roster spots, the number of teams."
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WNBA expansion history
After initially opening with eight teams in 1997, the WNBA reached as many as 16 teams in the early 2000s before some teams, like the Cleveland Rockers, were forced to fold. Eventually, the league moved forward with 12 teams in 2009, and didn't expand until the 2025 season when the Golden State Valkyries were added.
Now, between 2025 and 2030, the WNBA will have added six teams to reach 18 total.