{"id":595205,"date":"2026-04-10T17:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595205\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:27:08","slug":"wnba-approves-expansion-teams-in-cleveland-detroit-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595205\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA approves expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA is expanding, with new teams set to begin play in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA and NBA Board of Governors formally approved the expansion on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland will begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. The additions will bring the league\u2019s total number of teams to 18.<\/p>\n<p>IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/sports\/wnba-players-approve-landmark-7-year-collective-bargianing-deal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA players approve landmark 7-year collective bargaining deal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The league said it selected the cities based on a variety of factors, including market viability and the potential to build strong local fan bases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league\u2019s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women\u2019s professional basketball,&#8221; WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said when the expansion was initially announced.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the WNBA will celebrate its 30th season this year, which tips off May 8. Throughout the season, the league will recognize \u201cthose who built the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we step into this next dynamic era together, Season 30 is tracking to be our most memorable yet \u2013 celebrating both how far we\u2019ve come while highlighting the limitless opportunities ahead as we continue to elevate women\u2019s basketball to new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is expanding, with new teams set to begin play in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The WNBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-595205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}