It was an exciting morning for WNBA fans, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing not one, not even two, but three new expansion teams. The WNBA will welcome Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. With Golden State, Toronto, and Portland, that is six new WNBA teams entering the league in the next five years.
The WNBA needs even more expansion
With the announcement of new WNBA teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia, there is another aspect of the WNBA that needs expansion.
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Chelsea Leite has been writing about professional basketball since 2021, and covers both the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Tempo as a credentialed reporter for SB Nation.
What once was a 144-player league will be a 216-player league by 2030... but that is not enough. As we talk about adding teams to the WNBA, a conversation also needs to be had about expanding team rosters.
As of right now, WNBA teams have a 12-player cap for rosters, and many teams don’t even carry 12 players in order to stay under the hard salary cap. If you’re adding more teams, that means you’re adding more games, and that, unfortunately, means injuries will inevitably increase. Teams need to have more depth to dip into when their rosters shrink as the season goes on.
The current model of signing hardship contracts and having fringe roster players jump from team to team on 10-day contracts isn’t going to be sustainable. Having 216 total spots in the league is great, but teams need depth if they are going to be playing 50-plus game seasons. Expanding the rosters even just to 14 players would help mitigate those losses in the season. It’s not just about having more places for players to be able to make it into the league; it’s about ensuring the success of every player and team along the way.
Even going into a model where teams can sign “practice players” or second-string players would help not only with team depth but for young player development. Essentially, you can sign 2-3 players who won’t travel with the team but will be in-market and practice with them. Similar to the two-way deal of the NBA, they can have a cap on how many games they are available for in the season. That way, you are developing future talent, securing your depth, and also preventing players from having to bounce around all season to various teams.
That should be something that is being discussed in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the league and the players’ union. Roster expansion is a hot topic along with salary increase, scheduling, prioritization of the WNBA, health benefits and more. Especially with the increase of injuries we have seen this season, along with the players themselves being outspoken about the strain so many games with such limited rosters is already taking on their bodies, we need more balance.
Right now and in years past, there was a precedent of many players going to play overseas in the winter because there just were not enough spots in the WNBA. That will decrease as more spots open in the WNBA AND the season expands, but players need confirmation that they will have a spot in the WNBA as well as the salary in order to say no to offseason play.
It’s a more complicated issue than just saying “add more spots,” but it’s something the WNBA needs to be thinking about as they quickly grow the league. Expansion is exciting, but it needs to be paired with sustainability in order to be truly successful.
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