NEW YORK – The WNBA is “reasonably confident” it will expand to 16 teams by the 2028 season, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Monday ahead of the WNBA Draft.
The league will play its upcoming 28th season with 12 teams. The league announced in October that a Bay Area expansion team will join the league for 2025. The expansion draft will take place this calendar year, likely in December, Engelbert said. The goal is to add a 14th team in 2026.
“That [adding four teams] will add 48 roster spots within a few years,” Engelbert said. “That’s a lot, in a league of 144 players. That’s 30 percent. I think it will be great if we get that done in the next few years.”
Engelbert said during the WNBA Finals that she expected a 14th team to be added in 2025, but said the league would remain at 13 instead. The number of expansion teams has been a moving target since they first mentioned it in 2021.
Engelbert said Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Nashville and South Florida are potential landing spots.
“Those are the cities we’re talking to,” Engelbert said. “But last week we received calls from two other cities. It can take a very long time to negotiate this, but it can also happen quite quickly if you find the right ownership group with the right arena situation.”
Many of the rookies drafted Monday won’t make regular-season selections because there are so few open spots. There are between 132 and 144 roster spots in total, depending on whether teams have the minimum of 11, which many do for salary cap reasons rather than keeping the maximum of 12. Only 15 of the 36 players drafted in 2023 played in WNBA games.
Most teams use short-term hardship contracts during the season when players are injured. Engelbert said she would prefer to expand the league through teams rather than expanding roster sizes, something players have suggested.
