{"id":29550,"date":"2025-07-01T10:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29550\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T10:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:02:07","slug":"debut-year-team-name-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29550\/","title":{"rendered":"debut year, team name and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, and after the announcement from the league office on June 30, Pennsylvania will get a piece of the action as an expansion team is coming to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

League office also announced expansion teams for Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. This is following the Golden State Valkyries<\/a>, who made their debut in 2025, and Toronto and Portland, Oregon, who will begin play in 2026.<\/p>\n

\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\u00a0WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.\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. I am deeply grateful for our new owners and ownership groups for their belief in the WNBA\u2019s future and their commitment to building thriving teams that will energize and inspire their communities. We are excited for what these cities will bring to the league \u2014 and are confident that these new teams will reshape the landscape of women\u2019s basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protheroe power: <\/strong>Siblings made history this season for Notre Dame hoops<\/a><\/p>\n

More: <\/strong>Shawn Munford, Carly Gallagher stepping down as head coaches of ES South basketball<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s what you need to know about Philadelphia’s WNBA expansion team.<\/p>\n

When will the Philadelphia WNBA expansion team begin play?<\/p>\n

Of the three expansion teams announced Philadelphia will be the last to take the court. The Cleveland team will begin play in 2028, the Detroit team in 2029, and the Philadelphia team in 2030.<\/p>\n

Who owns the Philadelphia WNBA expansion team?<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia WNBA Team will be owned and operated by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. The company, led by managing partner and co-founder Josh Harris, owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, both affiliated minor league teams, and an Esports team.<\/p>\n

They also own the home of the 76ers, the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n

What is the name of the Philadelphia WNBA expansion team?<\/p>\n

According to the WNBA Philadelphia team website<\/a>, “The name will be decided at a later date with input from the Philadelphia fanbase and basketball communities.”<\/p>\n

Where will the Philadelphia WNBA expansion team play and practice?<\/p>\n

The team will play in “South Philadelphia alongside the Philadelphia 76ers,” according to the team site. For practice, there are plans to build a women’s performance center exclusively for the WNBA Philadelphia team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, and after the announcement from the league office…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[12775,5229,1339,2863,2473,25232,25231,23991,1571,5382,1260,50,450,1457,1448,2830,1311,3123,1451,62,1458,290,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2864,232,2869,1707],"class_list":{"0":"post-29550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-golden","12":"tag-golden-state-valkyries","13":"tag-harris","14":"tag-josh","15":"tag-josh-harris","16":"tag-national","17":"tag-national-sports","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-overall","21":"tag-overall-positive","22":"tag-pa","23":"tag-pennsylvania","24":"tag-philadelphia","25":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","26":"tag-positive","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-news","29":"tag-state","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-united-states-of-america","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-usa","36":"tag-valkyries","37":"tag-wnba","38":"tag-womens","39":"tag-womens-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114777407103406325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29550","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=29550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}