The WNBA has ascended to new heights, enjoying the peak of its popularity sparked by new exciting talents from the college game.
It began with eight franchises in 1997, and after the number of teams fluctuated over the next two decades due to financial instability, it is positioned to achieve the success that David Stern, the late NBA commissioner, envisioned when he pushed for the creation of a women's professional basketball league.
The WNBA Today: How Many Teams Are There?
The WNBA will grow to 13 teams in 2025 with the debut of the Golden State Valkyries.
The Valkyries will be the seventh team in the Western Conference, joining the Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm.
The Eastern Conference includes six franchises: Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty and Washington Mystics.
The Liberty are the reigning WNBA champions. In the 2024 WNBA Finals, New York defeated Minnesota, 3–2, in a thrilling five-game series to win the franchise's first league title.
The Early Days of the WNBA: Founding Teams
The WNBA played its first season in 1997 with eight founding franchises divided into two four-team conferences. The Eastern Conference consisted of the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets and New York Liberty. The Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz represented the Western Conference.
The driving force behind the WNBA was Stern, the NBA commissioner whose legacy had already been set with the NBA's rise and success under his watch. Stern sought to create a women's professional basketball league because he believed in gender equity. He also envisioned the WNBA—and women's sports in general—ultimately being profitable.
"Without his vision and engagement, the league wouldn't have gotten off the ground," said Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president, after Stern's retirement in 2014. "He was the mastermind, and the WNBA was really in line with his vision about how sports and society are intertwined."
With its "We Got Next" marketing campaign, the WNBA generated anticipation and excitement for the league's launch on June 21, 1997. However, it had competition right from the start. College stars, who previously had to go overseas to play professionally, suddenly had two leagues to make their dreams come true in the United States.
filed for bankruptcy and abruptly folded
The league's demise led to "the most transformative moment" for the WNBA, according to Kelly Kramer, then an assistant coach for the Columbus Quest, as several ABL players switched to the WNBA. "We had a high quality of players ... and when our players were absorbed into that league, that completely changed the WNBA for the better," Kramer said.
Expansion Periods: Growing the League
The influx of ABL talent and the WNBA's increased popularity prompted the W to proceed with rapid growth.
In 1998, the WNBA grew to 10 franchises with the addition of the expansion Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics. In 1999, two more teams were added with the arrival of the Minnesota Lynx and Orlando Miracle. In 2000, the league reached an all-time high of 16 clubs with four more expansion teams—Indiana Fever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire and Seattle Storm.
The WNBA was collectively owned by the NBA, but the business model changed after the 2002 season when the NBA Board of Governors voted to restructure the WNBA to allow individual team ownership, including non-NBA owners. Also, franchises could be moved to non-NBA markets.
The NBA's selling off of WNBA teams had a domino effect. Three franchises didn't survive the shake-up (see below). That didn't stop Stern and Ackerman from expanding the WNBA into new major markets behind the investment of local business leaders. The league welcomed the Chicago Sky in 2006 and the Atlanta Dream in 2008.
Challenges and Contraction: Teams That Disappeared
The road figured to be bumpy after the 2002 decision to have WNBA teams owned by their respective NBA owners and operated with their own balance sheets. The struggle to produce the necessary funding was expected.
Miami and Portland paid the biggest price from the WNBA's restructuring agreement. Both franchises were shut down permanently after only three seasons.
Ackerman, the league president, revealed that the WNBA's losses were "significant," including single-season deficits of more than $1 million for some teams. Single-season revenue usually ranged between $2 million and $3 million.
"There have been some short-term changes, but in the end we think the restructuring will result in a better operation," Ackerman said in December 2002.
After the 2003 season, Cleveland, one of the WNBA's original franchises, also ceased operations for good. Owner Gordon Gund, who bought the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2002, put the Rockers up for sale but could not find a local buyer.
Houston suffered the same fate in 2008. After a new owner couldn't be found, the Comets disbanded despite winning the league's first four championships from 1997 to 2000.
In 2009, the same story befell the Monarchs, an original WNBA franchise that won the 2005 championship. The Maloof family surprisingly folded the Monarchs after it decided to focus on its other basketball property, the NBA's Sacramento Kings.
The WNBA's plan to move the Monarchs to the Bay Area under new ownership eventually fell through. The move left the league with 12 teams.
Relocation of WNBA Teams
The restructuring of the WNBA business model in 2002 also created change with franchises being bought and then moved to new cities.
The San Antonio Spurs' ownership group purchased the Starzz after the 2002 season and relocated the team from Salt Lake City to the Alamo City. The San Antonio Silver Stars (shortened to San Antonio Stars in 2014) spent 15 spent years in Texas before the franchise was again sold, this time to MGM Resorts International. In 2018, the team was relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded as the Las Vegas Aces.
Another original WNBA franchise was sold and moved. In 2003, the Miracle were bought by the Mohegan Tribe and relocated from Orlando to Connecticut, where the team was renamed the Connecticut Sun.
Despite winning three WNBA titles in Detroit, the Shock were sold after the 2009 season and moved to Tulsa. The Tulsa Shock didn't duplicate the franchise's success in the Motor City, and majority owner Bill Cameron seized the opportunity to move his team to the nation's fifth-largest media market in Dallas. After the 2015 campaign, the Shock became the Dallas Wings.
The Future of the WNBA: Potential Expansion
After all of the contractions in the 2000s and the relocations in the 2010s, the WNBA has reached unprecedented success and stability. Buoyed by the stardom of rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the league enjoyed historic attendance and TV ratings in 2024 and secured a $2.2 billion media rights deal.
It is also embarking on a new period of growth.
The addition of a 13th WNBA team—the Valkyries in San Francisco under the ownership of the Golden State Warriors—symbolizes the prosperity of the WNBA. The league will welcome two more expansion teams in 2026 with the return of Portland (the team name has yet to be determined) and the addition of the Toronto Tempo (the WNBA's first franchise outside the U.S.).
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is "confident" the league can get to 16 teams by 2028. Bids to become the 16th franchise were submitted in January. Interested cities include previous homes for WNBA teams—Cleveland, Detroit and Houston. Also on the list of expansion hopefuls are Austin, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Nashville, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Many WNBA Teams Are There? Running Through the History of League Contraction and Expansion .
