Dawgs By Nature
The women’s league continues to grow
The Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA had an exceptional season this year and finished the regular season with the league’s second-best record of 64-18. Despite losing in the playoffs, their season has been described as a huge success and something to build on.
Now comes word that the WNBA wants to expand to three new cities in the next five years. Right off, the first city to get a new franchise is Cleveland.
Monday, we talked a little NBA with the potential return of LeBron James to the Cavs, so it is only right we share about the newest professional sports franchise headed to the city as well. We know the overall sports passion of our Cleveland Browns faithful!
On Monday, the league announced that Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia would be the locations for the expansion teams. Cleveland will start play in 2028, Detroit in 2029, followed by Philadelphia in 2030.
RELATED: WNBA ANNOUNCES “HISTORIC EXPANSION”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement:
“The demand for women’s basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family. 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.”
Whether the Cavs’ success has anything to do with this announcement or not, the city does support professional basketball. The NBA overall had its second-highest regular season attendance in history with an average of 18,147 patrons a game. On the home front, Cleveland had the seventh highest attendance this year (796,712) and averaged 19,432 fans per home contest.
The ownership group for the Cleveland franchise is Rock Entertainment Group (REG), an assembly led by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. This all bodes well for the WNBA club.
This year, the league welcomed the Golden State Valkyries, which play their home games at Chase Arena in San Francisco. They lead the WNBA in attendance with an average of 18,064 paid customers per contest despite being the new guys. Next year, the Toronto Tempo and Portland will feature new teams. Portland hasn’t decided on a team name, although there are some in the mix, including Fire, River, Swifts, and Pests. The Portland Fire was another WNBA team the formed in 2000 and dissolved in 2002.
For Cleveland, they had the WNBA Cleveland Rockers from 1997 to 2003. The Rockers were a charter team of the infant eight-team league but never won a title.
Like the new Cleveland team, both the Detroit and Philly franchises will be owned by the same groups that run their respective NBA clubs. The Detroit Pistons are owned by Tom Gores and his wife, Holly, while the 76ers grou,p headed by David Blitzer and David Adelman, will run the new Philadelphia team.
For Cleveland, no word on whether this new franchise will revive the name Rockers or begin with a new moniker.
It also hasn’t...
