Four cities submit bids for WNBA teams in one week as more expansion looms

The WNBA is not going to stop growing any time soon.

With the Golden State Valkyries gearing up to start play in 2025, and the Portland team set to start the following year, expansion is already underway. But it's also probably just getting started; in just the past week alone, four cities have submitted bids for WNBA expansion teams: Tennessee, Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia.

Three of those bids are backed by NBA team owners, with Tennessee being the lone bid not affiliated with an NBA owner or ownership group. That bid was submitted by Bill Haslam, a former governer of Tennessee, who plans to name the team the Tennessee Summit if awarded a team, honoring former Univeristy of Tennessee coach Pat Summit. Candace Parker and Peyton Manning are also part of that ownership group.

Philadelphia officially joins the party

The latest bid, officially made by Sixers owner Josh Harris and his company on Friday, has been brewing for a while. A WNBA team was actually brought up when Harris and his company were trying to decimate Chinatown in Philadelphia to build a new 76ers arena. That arena didn't go through (love to see it) but a WNBA team is still a distinct possibility for Philly.

The Philadelphia bid for a WNBA team is like most other professional sports leagues — great, if the owner wasn't so awful.

Still, even with Harris in charge, expansion in the WNBA is a resounding success for a league that has grown monumentally over the past few years.

By 2026, the W will have 15 teams. If all of these bids get accepted, that number immediately jumps to 19, which is much closer to the number the league should be at; right now, far too many W-caliber players aren't on rosters simply because there's not enough space.