This is the question in every WNBA on fans’ minds in recent years — WHEN will the league expand? The WNBA has grown exponentially over the past few years. From TV viewership to ticket sales to social media engagement, everything is improving in the world of the WNBA.
Currently, there are 12 WNBA teams. All are in the United States, but there are nevertheless many unserved areas of the United States looking to establish a WNBA franchise. One of the most talked about growth markets is NOT in America: Toronto.
The hype for the WNBA in Toronto has been around for many years, but it’s really ramped up in 2023. It started with the announcement of the WNBA Canada exhibition game in May, when the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx came to play in Toronto. The enthusiasm for the WNBA was REAL this weekend, and many realized that Toronto had a real case to be able to sustain a WNBA franchise for the long term.
Since then, pressure on the WNBA to announce expansion has increased. It seems WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert can’t go anywhere without being asked when the league plans to announce expansion.
Here’s what we know:
The WNBA’s position on expansion
We all know that Commissioner Engelbert is a media trained queen. She knows how to answer a question without Really give a complete answer. When asked about WNBA expansion, Cathy gave the same answer all season. The league is analyzing data to see which cities would be the best hosts for the teams – it wants to prove that long-term support would be there.
There are about 10 cities on a shortlist that the WNBA is considering expanding. Toronto seems to be one of them. The league (and Cathy) mentioned the possibility of making an announcement “this year” regarding expansion, but they also said that last year and then backtracked, so…we’ll see.
All we know is that we don’t know much. The league appears to be looking into the issue, but it doesn’t seem to be letting on anymore.
There are also many obstacles to consider when considering expansion, especially when talking about adding an international team into the mix:
The flight dilemma
As it stands, most travel by WNBA players during the season is commercial/public transportation. They travel regularly by coach on regular planes with all the regular people in the world with all the regular delays that happen on a daily basis.
This has been a huge topic of discussion within the WNBA over the past few seasons, as players began to express how unfair it was that they, as professional athletes, were forced to fly to commercial purpose. They are often late, which prevents them from resting before matches. They are all very large, which makes flying on commercial airlines quite uncomfortable. There’s also the issue of security, as WNBA players gain popularity and public awareness – people recognize them at airports and there have been cases of harassment against teams this season.
There are a few exceptions to the rule for commercial flights. For example, New York and Connecticut typically take the bus when they compete because these two markets are literally next to each other. During the 2023 season, the WNBA also allowed teams to charter flights when they had back-to-back games on their schedule (when they play one day in one city then play a game the next day in another city). The WNBA also announced that all playoff flights this season would be chartered — although they came under scrutiny a few weeks ago when they announced some tweaks to that promise.
Players, teams and managers have been trying to do something about the theft dilemma for several years. New York Liberty owner Joe Tsai was fined $500,000 by the league a few seasons ago for chartering his team in a back-to-back game before the rule was imposed – the league said this was an “unfair advantage.” Then Tsai tried to gather support from sponsors so the league could have chartered flights, but the WNBA also refused, still citing an unfair advantage.
This issue will be a hot topic in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WNBPA).
Regardless, this is also an important factor when it comes to expansion in Toronto.
With all 12 teams currently in the United States, there is no need to go through customs or border patrol when traveling for games. Simply go through security, board the plane and leave – no passport required. If the league were to expand into Canada and commercial travel remained the norm, every team would have to go through customs every time they arrived in or out of Toronto. Most of us have been to Pearson Airport – we know how professional athletes have to do it several times a week.
It works for the NBA and the Toronto Raptors because each team has its own chartered plane. They go through private customs and border security and it’s simple and efficient. The WNBA should resolve the league travel problem before launching an expansion team in Toronto, otherwise the in-season travel problem will only get worse.
Team Expansion vs. Roster Expansion
Many people within the WNBA believe that it is still too early to think about team expansion and that the league should instead expand the roster of current WNBA teams.
Currently, each team has 12 spots, with a hard salary cap of $1,420,500. While in the NBA, teams can go slightly over the salary cap and enter the luxury tax bracket, WNBA teams are strictly prohibited from meeting their cap.
For this reason, many teams started signing only 11 players so they could pay more. This poses another major problem: lack of access to the WNBA. It’s an extremely difficult league to find a spot in, and most rookies who are drafted to the league’s annual WNBA Draft teams don’t end up making rosters anyway. This poses another problem of lack of player development opportunities in a growing league. Many extremely talented college players with successful NCAA careers fail to find a place in the WNBA.
Still, you can’t ask older veteran players to “hang it up” too soon just because of this. Why should they cut their careers short just to try to solve a problem they didn’t create? This is the league that needs to give more spots to WNBA teams in order to be able to retain more young players. Many have suggested things like player development “practice squad” spots to develop young talent.
Another problem with these small teams and a strict salary cap is paying players what they deserve. In 2023, many teams ended up paying their star players less so they could sign all the players they wanted on their teams. Teams like the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, who have assembled “super team” rosters this year, have paid players like Breanna Stewart, Candace Parker and far less money than they deserve. These players obviously accepted, for the benefit of the team, but there is no question of the best players of a team accepting substantial salary reductions to adapt to such a situation.
For all these reasons, many believe the league needs to focus on expanding the roster and increasing the salary cap for teams before thinking about adding more teams to the WNBA.
So, does Toronto REALLY have a chance?
When the topic of expansion comes up, Toronto seems to be the priority of cities that deserve a team. There is obvious support here in terms of fans. The city has the facilities to support a team, and it seems the WNBA would be welcomed here with open arms. Even the players have enjoyed their stay here in recent years.
While Toronto certainly deserves a team, it would be unfair to bring the WNBA and its players here until some of the system’s flaws are ironed out. Flights are the biggest obstacle to expanding hopes to Toronto. Until the WNBA allows charter flights throughout the season, traveling to Toronto would be far too complicated.
The next opportunity for a new collective bargaining agreement is in 2025, when the WNBPA will have the option to opt out of its agreement to negotiate a new one. It is basically certain that they will withdraw, with discussions of charter flights and salaries, TV deals and other issues coming up so frequently in recent years. Additionally, the WNBA and its popularity have grown so much since the last CBA that players have more of an advantage than ever.
So, will the league expand before then? Will Toronto be included? It’s hard to say. Don’t expect to know more until an official announcement is made.
All we can do is continue to support the WNBA in Canada and hope that these efforts will push the league to make the necessary changes. The WNBA would thrive in Canada and hopefully one day it will be a reality.
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