Did the WNBA Choose the Wrong Cities For Expansion?

The WNBA is more popular than ever with new superstar players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and other young players. WNBA television viewership has also skyrocketed this season by 170% to over a million viewers per nationally televised regular season game. They also have packed NBA arenas across the country for key games. With the WNBA’s rise in popularity they have decided to add new expansion teams, but did they make a mistake on the cities they selected for expansion?

The WNBA announced that they are expanding to Golden State, Toronto, and Portland in this latest round of expansion. These are cities that already have NBA teams in them. However, the WNBA as a result of expanding to these cities will suffer the same misfortunes that the PAC-12 did. Although the PAC-12 is a college conference, it struggled for years to get big TV attention because all of its teams were located on the West Coast which resulted in games starting much later than those on the East Coast. The NBA has similar problems, with some games on the West Coast starting as late as 10 pm EST. With a bulk of the US population residing on the East Coast, it is vital that people on the East Coast stay engaged with the WNBA and its new franchises if it looks to continue growing.

American sports count on television deals to supply a massive portion of its revenues. The WNBA just got a new media rights deal, and as the league continues to grow, it will need the television viewership to grow as well. However, selecting cities that are either outside of the US or in locations that make it inconvenient for a large portion of the US population to watch these new teams, will likely result in the league not growing as fast as it could have.