The WNBA is coming off a report 12 months and in search of its subsequent enlargement market, and no less than two star athletes are eager to get entangled.
Patrick Mahomes and Jayson Tatum are each reportedly excited by bringing the WNBA to their cities.
When will the WNBA increase?
The WNBA at the moment has 12 groups however will increase to 13 subsequent season with the Golden State Valkyries after which to fifteen groups in 2026 with groups in Toronto and Portland, as beforehand reported by the .
“The expansion and demand for the WNBA have led us to enlargement,” forward of the WNBA draft. “Ladies’s basketball shouldn’t be a fad. We’ve been steadily constructing this momentum for years, and we’re prepared for what’s subsequent.”
Engelbert mentioned she is “assured” the WNBA will increase to 16 groups by 2028.
That sixteenth market has but to be introduced. It’s the one Mahomes and Tatum are vying for.
The addition of 4 groups will enhance WNBA roster spots by 30%, including a complete of 48 to the 144 roster spots the league at the moment has.
Does Patrick Mahomes wish to purchase a WNBA enlargement staff?
The possession group of Kansas Metropolis’s NWSL staff, the KC Present, which incorporates Mahomes and his spouse, have “met with the WNBA” and are “in competition” to convey a staff to Kansas Metropolis, reported Wednesday.
Mahomes was the primary lively NFL participant to put money into an NWSL staff, per the .
“We wish to get basketball to Kansas Metropolis typically after which WNBA. The success that they’ve had this final season and these previous few seasons, it’s form of a no brainer,” Mahomes mentioned Thursday throughout his media availability.
Mahomes thinks the possession group’s success with the Present makes them the fitting group to convey a staff to Kansas Metropolis.
“It was cool that we have been capable of get this soccer staff, this ladies’s soccer staff right here within the Present and so they’re going into the playoffs now and also you see the help that they’ve. So let’s attempt to get a WNBA staff in right here as nicely (with) that very same possession group. They’ve completed the Present the fitting method, and I wish to proceed to work with them to take that subsequent step and get a WNBA staff right here,” Mahomes mentioned, per .
Does Jayson Tatum wish to be concerned in a WNBA enlargement staff?
Tatum can also be eyeing involvement in a WNBA enlargement staff, however not in Boston, the place he performs for the Celtics.
He’s been tied to a bid in his hometown of St. Louis.
The reigning NBA champion “has informally agreed to put money into the staff ought to it come to fruition and contribute behind the scenes to the group’s pitch, each to different potential big-name traders and the league itself,” reported.
Tatum’s potential involvement is made potential by way of the brand new NBA collective bargaining settlement ratified final 12 months. The CBA permits NBA gamers as much as 4% possession in a WNBA staff.
St. Louis is not any stranger to skilled basketball. The town was dwelling to the NBA’s St. Louis Bombers from 1949 to 1950 and the St. Louis Hawks from 1955–1968. It’s also at the moment the house of girls’s skilled basketball staff, the St. Louis Surge.