How WNBA Is Preparing to Build on Historic 2024 Season

The WNBA’s breakthrough 2024 season isn’t quite over yet, but the league is already preparing for an encore that is aimed at reaching even greater heights.

This season for the women’s basketball league, of course, was a deeply transformative one that included record attendance, a bevy of viewership milestones, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon becoming a national frenzy, and announcements of forthcoming teams in Toronto and Portland. 

As the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are set for Game 3 on Wednesday, the league is actively working on several major initiatives for the 2025 season. Among them: 

• Expansion: The Golden State Valkyries will start play next year, while the previously announced Toronto and Portland franchises will join the league by 2026. A 16th team could join the league in 2027. As planning for the confirmed franchises and consideration of other candidates continues, the league is spoiled for choice among potential markets.  
• A longer regular season: The 2025 campaign will increase from 40 regular-season games per team to 44. That will help extend the overall season slightly deeper into October.
• Adjusted playoff format: The WNBA Finals beginning next year will expand from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven, while home court placements will also change for the first round. The availability of charter flights across the entire season and rising interest in WNBA games have helped fuel these changes. 

“Honestly, the league’s growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball made this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the Finals, and provide more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said last week as the Finals began.

TV Talk

The league’s new TV deals, part of a comparison set of agreements for the NBA, will not begin until 2026. But those pacts are set to provide $2.2 billion over 11 years, and there will be an opportunity after three years to revisit the rights and see where they match up with the league’s growth. Next year, the WNBA will be preparing for the first of the new deals with ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon.

At the Finals, Engelbert called the deals “groundbreaking” and highlighted their ability to “grow the economics of the league and expand the reach and accessibility of our game for our fans, with additional WNBA media deals to come.”