WNBA expansion: Warriors awarded new Bay Area team that’s set to debut in 2025, play at Chase Center

The WNBA is formally increasing to the Bay Area, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert introduced Thursday. The new team, tied with the Golden State Warriors, will tip off its season in 2025.

This would be the first time the league has added a new team for the reason that Atlanta Dream in 2008. 

“The Bay Area is the perfect market for a WNBA team, and we are thrilled this opportunity has finally come to fruition,” Joe Lacob, Warriors co-executive chairman and CEO, stated in a commentary. “We have been interested in a WNBA franchise for several years, due in part to the rich history of women’s basketball in the Bay Area, and believe now is the ideal time to execute that vision and build upon the legacy.”

The team will play at the Chase Center in San Francisco, similar to their NBA counterpart. The WNBA team’s headquarters will probably be at the similar facility in Oakland that the Warriors used for observe and as a entrance workplace from 1997-2019.

The Warriors are actually the 6th NBA franchise to have a WNBA team, becoming a member of the Indiana Pacers (Indiana Fever), Minnesota Timberwolves (Minnesota Lynx), Brooklyn Nets (New York Liberty,) Phoenix Suns (Phoenix Mercury) and Washington Wizards (Washington Mystics).

The WNBA has been discussing growth in sincerity for a variety of years now, however there has up to now now not been a lot in the best way of specifics — each in phrases of timeline and site. Engelbert has up to now indicated a need to upload more than one groups, however it stays unclear if or when every other team will probably be introduced. 

There were a couple of seasons — 2004-05, 2007 and 2009 — the place the league performed with an peculiar choice of groups, and the present structure makes it imaginable for that to occur once more. The best 8 groups make the playoffs without reference to convention association, so there would not be a subject matter from that viewpoint if one convention had an additional team. Of route, there are nonetheless 18 months till the 2025 season starts, so there is time for a 2d team to be introduced prior to then. 

At this level, additional main points in regards to the team’s title and colour scheme, in addition to the growth draft, are nonetheless unknown.