Expansion has been the biggest story in women’s sports for the past two years.
The WNBA will expand to 18 teams by 2030 with teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia in addition to the league’s most recent expansion teams in the Golden State Valkyries, Toronto Tempo, and Portland Fire. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman has repeatedly mentioned her desire for an NFL-sized league; the NWSL announced a 17th team (in Atlanta) for 2028 and has plans for an 18th team to join the same year. The PWHL added two teams in 2025—the Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes—after launching with six teams in 2024. By the 2026-27 season, the league could include up to 12 teams.
While the expanded footprint of these two more established women’s sports leagues has remained at the forefront, 2025 was dominated by emerging leagues. Here is a look at some of the most notable adolescent leagues and where they stand heading into 2026.
PWHL
The PWHL has aged out of its infancy, but it’s still growing.
The league debuted in 2024 with six teams and expanded to eight across the U.S. and Canada, adding the Torrent and Goldeneyes. On top of expansion, the league will be highlighted on a global stage with a number of its players competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics, including Torrent forward and U.S. star Hilary Knight. She announced this year that the Olympics in Italy will be her last.
As the PWHL continues to see record breaking attendance numbers—the Torrent set a new U.S. attendance record with 16,014 fans at their inaugural game at Climate Pledge Arena—it eyes further expansion. By next year the league could include up to 12 teams further solidifying it as one of the premier women’s sports leagues in the U.S.
Unrivaled
The start up 3-on-3 league made its debut in January 2025 with six teams. On Jan. 5 the league, based in Miami, will begin its second season with two new teams and a slate of new players, headlined by Paige Bueckers. The league’s second season will also feature a tour stop in Philadelphia with four of the league’s teams scheduled to play back-to-back games on Jan. 30.
The league made a splash last year with its high salaries and improved operational standards compared to the WNBA. Players capitalized on the exposure, using it as an opportunity to discuss the early stages of CBA negotiations and what they felt was lacking in the WNBA. As year 2 tips off, players are facing a new pressure with the CBA set to expire on Jan. 9.
Unrivaled’s valuation grew to $340 million after a series B investment round closed in September.
Athletes Unlimited Softball League
Led by commissioner Kim Ng, Athletes Unlimited Softball positioned itself as the top softball league in the United States in 2025.
Athlete Unlimited’s professional sports footprint began with softball in 2020. It was played in a non-traditional format at one location and featured a scoring system to crown a single champion at the end of the season. In 2022, Athletes Unlimited founded AUX, which featured 42-athletes playing a condensed 18-game season. AUSL is the league’s first traditional iteration of the sport. Its inaugural season was played on the heels of an eight-figure investment from Major League Baseball and featured four teams.
The AUSL will expand to six teams in 2026.
Women’s Lacrosse League
Athletes Unlimited operated a professional lacrosse league from 2021 to 2024, at which point the Women’s Lacrosse League entered the picture. Founded by the Premier Lacrosse League in November of 2024, the WLL played its inaugural competition—the Maybelline Championship Series—in 2025 (Feb. 11-17) featuring four teams: Boston Guard, Maryland Charm, New York Charging, and California Palms. The Guard won the inaugural series.
This summer the league will expand to a full season, including playoffs. The WLL will also host a college draft ahead of the upcoming season with rosters expanding to 23 players.
League One Volleyball Pro
League One Volleyball was founded in 2020 with the mission of one day launching a professional volleyball league. In the last five years the club network has expanded to include 1,500 junior club teams, 32 of which launched in 2025.
LOVB Pro debuted in 2025 with six teams: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Nebraska, and Salt Lake. In April LOVB Austin won the league’s inaugural title with a clean sweep of Nebraska. In 2027 the league will expand to nine teams with the addition of Los Angeles, Minnesota, and San Francisco.
Women’s Pro Baseball League
Announced in 2024, the WPBL took its first major steps in 2025 beginning with an August tryout that brought more than 600 players out to Nationals Park in Washington, DC. The league announced San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston as the first four cities, but they have not been given team names yet.
In November, the league held its inaugural draft in which players were preselected by teams. Kelsie Whitmore was announced as the first overall pick by San Francisco. Next August the league will play its first season in Springfield, Ill.
The WPBL is the first pro league in America since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943–54) which was formed during World War II.
Grand Slam Track
Not every splashy entry into women’s sports was a success. While Grand Slam promised some of the highest salaries and prize money in women’s sports, it quickly started making headlines for being unable to pay them.
Grand Slam Track—founded by Olympic champion Michael Johnson—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after failing to pay all of the money owed to athletes and vendors. As the league headed toward bankruptcy, athletes were paid half of the roughly $11 million that was owed to them. The league only completed three of its four planned meets in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami, and Philadelphia. The fourth meet in Los Angeles, originally scheduled for June 28-29, was canceled due to the league’s financial strains.
The league was founded promising a revolutionary amount of prize money. Instead, it will end the year owing a number of star track and field athletes six-figure sums. Sydney McLaughlin, one of the league’s biggest creditors, is owed more than $350,000—well over the WNBA supermax.
Project B
The women’s basketball landscape will get even more crowded in 2026 with the addition of this new start up five-on-five league. The league doesn’t have a name yet and is going by Project B in the meantime.
At this stage, the league—which is set to tip off in November—has more questions than answers. Aside from announcing a short list of players that are set to compete in the inaugural season, the league has not shared details about how competition will work and where precisely games will be played.
There are also persistent questions about how the league is being funded, though the league has lured several WNBA stars with the promise of multi-million dollar salaries.
The league says it will feature six teams of 11 players competing in seven two-week tournaments across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Flag Football
The biggest development in women’s flag football came later in the year when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the league’s plans to launch men’s and women’s flag football leagues ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
The Los Angeles Games will mark the sports Olympic debut. In December, NFL owners voted to invest up to $32 million to establish both leagues. This investment follows years of growing interest in the sport with 15 states sanctioning it as a high school girls varsity sport.
