These NFL and NBA players are eyeing WNBA expansion teams

The WNBA is coming off a banner year and is looking for its next expansion market, and at least two star athletes want to get involved.

Patrick Mahomes and Jayson Tatum are both reportedly interested in bringing the WNBA to their cities.

When will the WNBA expand?

The WNBA currently has 12 teams but will expand to 13 next season with the Golden State Valkyries, then to 15 teams in 2026 with teams in Toronto and Portland, as previously reported by the Desert News.

“The growth and demand for the WNBA has led us to expand. » WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in April before the WNBA draft. “Women’s basketball is not a fashion. We have been steadily building this dynamic for years and we are ready for the future.

Engelbert said she is “confident” the WNBA will have 16 teams by 2028.

This 16th market has not yet been announced. This is the one Mahomes and Tatum are fighting over.

The addition of four teams will increase the number of spots on the WNBA roster by 30 percent, adding a total of 48 to the 144 spots the league currently has.

Does Patrick Mahomes want to buy a WNBA expansion team?

Kansas City’s NWSL team KC Current’s ownership group, which includes Mahomes and his wife, has “met with the WNBA” and is “in the running” to bring a team to Kansas City. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday.

Mahomes was the first active NFL player to invest in an NWSL team, according to the Current.

“We want to bring basketball to Kansas City in general and then to the WNBA. The success they had last season and over the last few seasons, it’s a no-brainer,” Mahomes said Thursday during his press briefing.

Mahomes believes the ownership group’s success with the Current makes them the right group to bring a team to Kansas City.

“It was cool that we were able to have this soccer team, this girls soccer team here in Current and they’re now making the playoffs and you see the support they have. So let’s try to have a WNBA team here as well (with) that same ownership group. They did the Current the right way, and I want to continue to work with them to take the next step and bring a WNBA team here,” Mahomes said, according to ESPN.

Does Jayson Tatum want to get involved with a WNBA expansion team?

Tatum is also considering getting involved with a WNBA expansion team, but not in Boston, where he plays for the Celtics.

He has been linked to an offer in his hometown of St. Louis.

The reigning NBA champion “informally agreed to invest in the team if it comes to fruition and to contribute behind the scenes to the group’s pitch, both to other potential big-name investors and to the league itself.” -even”. Sportico reported.

Tatum’s potential involvement is made possible by the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement ratified last year. The CBA allows NBA players to have up to 4% ownership in a WNBA team.

St. Louis is no stranger to professional basketball. The city was home to the NBA’s St. Louis Bombers from 1949 to 1950 and the St. Louis Hawks from 1955 to 1968. It is also currently the home of the women’s professional basketball team, the St. Louis Surge.