{"id":27856,"date":"2025-06-30T19:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27856\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T19:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:06:09","slug":"as-its-tv-ratings-rebound-wnba-expands-to-philadelphia-cleveland-and-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27856\/","title":{"rendered":"As Its TV Ratings Rebound, WNBA Expands To Philadelphia, Cleveland And Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAs it enjoys a TV ratings resurgence, the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/wnba\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wnba\" data-tag=\"wnba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WNBA<\/a> is expanding to 18 teams, adding franchises in <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/philadelphia\/\" id=\"auto-tag_philadelphia\" data-tag=\"philadelphia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philadelphia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/cleveland\/\" id=\"auto-tag_cleveland\" data-tag=\"cleveland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cleveland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/detroit\/\" id=\"auto-tag_detroit\" data-tag=\"detroit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Detroit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe league\u2019s 15 existing clubs include the Golden State Valkyries, which played their first games in May 2025, as well as teams starting up next year in Toronto and Portland, OR. The Cleveland team will begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tCaitlin Clark\u2019s recent injury caused a significant drop in WNBA TV ratings, but her return has seen viewership surge back toward peak levels. A contest last week between Clark\u2019s Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces averaged 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, the network\u2019s fifth-biggest regular-season game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cThe demand for women\u2019s basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family,\u201d WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.\u00a0\u201cThis historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league\u2019s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women\u2019s professional basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tCleveland\u2019s new team will be the city\u2019s second WNBA franchise. The Cleveland Rockers were in the league from 1997 to 2003. The forthcoming club will be will be owned and operated by Rock Entertainment Group, the umbrella for REG Chairman Dan Gilbert\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/sports\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sports\" data-tag=\"sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sports<\/a> and entertainment properties. Gilbert also owns the NBA\u2019s Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDetroit is also making a return to the WNBA, with the new squad succeeding the Shock, which played from 1998 to 2009. The new team\u2019s ownership group is led by Tom Gores, his wife Holly, and other investors from the realms of sports, business, entertainment, media, and finance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe Philadelphia WNBA Team will be owned and operated by Harris Blitzer Sports &amp; Entertainment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As it enjoys a TV ratings resurgence, the WNBA is expanding to 18 teams, adding franchises in Philadelphia,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[13593,1449,1311,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-27856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-cleveland","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114773883797161621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}