Philly’s WNBA team has been officially approved by WNBA and NBA Board of Governors
The team, which still doesn’t have a name, will begin play in 2030.
Officially official.
On Thursday, the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors formally approved a WNBA expansion team in Philadelphia. The team, which is still without a name, will tip off its first season in 2030. The announcement coincided with the league’s approval of expansion teams in Cleveland in 2028 and Detroit in 2029.
The league first announced that Philadelphia would gain an expansion team last June, and that the franchise will be owned and operated by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the 76ers. Both of the sports management firm’s Philadelphia teams, alongside the Flyers, will share a new arena in South Philadelphia that is set to be completed in 2031. Managing partner Josh Harris previously told the Inquirer that the arena’s timeline could be moved up coincide with the WNBA team’s arrival in 2030. If not, the team will call Xfinity Mobile Arena home for a single season.
“Philadelphia has long-deserved a WNBA team,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, a South Jersey native, said in June. “We’re proud to say that today is officially the day.”
With the addition of the three cities, the WNBA will soon total 18 teams — a far cry from the original eight the league boasted in its inaugural 1997 season. The approval also coincides with the league and its player association reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, which raised minimum salaries from $270,000 to $1.4 million, awarded players 20% of the league’s gross revenue, and increased player health benefits, among other changes.