In less than five weeks, the WNBA’s No. 1 overall pick will walk across a stage and hug commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
What is clear: It will be a defining moment for the league, the player (probably Paige Bueckers), and the franchise that takes her (probably the Dallas Wings).
What’s not clear: where it will take place.
The draft is scheduled for Monday, April 14, and the league is currently directing fans to join a waitlist for “experiences” for it on its website. The time and location are listed as “TBD”; a league spokesperson told Front Office Sports the event will take place in New York. ESPN will once again broadcast the draft.
On April 15, 2024, the Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted the draft and drew 1,000 fans, which was a sellout. The league announced the 2024 draft venue on Feb. 28.
It was also the first time the draft had admitted fans since Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena did from 2014 to 2016. The ESPN broadcast averaged 2.4 million viewers, an all-time high and 328% increase from 2023 driven by a star-studded rookie class headlined by Caitlin Clark.
BAM is a short walk from the Barclays Center, where the Nets and Liberty play; the arena, which regularly hosts the NBA draft, was unavailable in 2024 due to a conflict with a Nets game. This year, the NBA regular season ends the day before the draft, and neither New York NBA arena has an event scheduled for April 14.
The Liberty and BAM did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Historically, the WNBA draft has been nomadic. Multiple-time hosts include Mohegan Sun; ESPN’s Bristol, Ct., campus; the league’s Secaucus, N.J., broadcast site; and Nike’s New York City headquarters. The draft has also made one-time stops in Tampa, Cleveland, and Spring Studios in Manhattan.
One logical site would be Madison Square Garden, but Knicks owner James Dolan has a frosty history with the WNBA. He owned the Liberty from their 1997 founding until he sold the team to the Tsai family in 2019. Clara Wu Tsai has said that the team was “underinvested in” under Dolan, who in turn has reportedly pressed NBA commissioner Adam Silver about the women’s league losing money.
The theater at Madison Square Garden regularly hosted the NBA draft from 2001 to 2010, but the venue switched to Barclays Center in 2013 after a two-year stint at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., while Barclays was under construction. Madison Square Garden has never hosted the WNBA draft, though it did host the league’s unveiling of its first eight team uniforms in 1997.
Radio City Music Hall is another Dolan-owned venue; it hosted the NFL Draft for years before the league left, in part because of ongoing conflicts with Rockettes shows. (The Rockettes are another Dolan property.)
MSG and Radio City Music Hall have no events listed on their calendars for April 14, making the WNBA draft an unlikely last-minute addition.
A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Company’s events arm did not comment.
Other Manhattan venues have occasionally hosted sports drafts. The 2005 NFL Draft was at the Javits Center in Hell’s Kitchen. Messages to the Javits Center were not immediately returned.
The 2024 draft was headlined by Caitlin Clark, but also saw standouts such as Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Rickea Jackson taken, which helped boost viewership. The 2025 draft isn’t as star-heavy as its predecessor, but Connecticut All-American Paige Bueckers is widely expected to be the top pick; the Wings hold the No. 1 selection. The Golden State Valkyries, the league’s first expansion team since 2008, will also pick fifth.
The draft comes during a historic time for the league, which is set to enter an 11-year, $2.2 billion media-rights deal next season and is currently negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association.
