The WNBA has been rapidly rising in popularity, and the game has been growing over the last several years. The league added the Golden State Valkyries this season as its first expansion team since 2008, and the franchise has been an unbelievable success, both on and off the court.
To continue this trend, the league announced last offseason that both Portland, Oregon and Toronto, Ontario, Canada would both be granted franchises as well. In 2026, the Toronto Tempo and the Portland expansion team will take the WNBA court for the first time.
While this felt like a series of major moves for the league, they were not done. On Monday, the WNBA announced that expansion teams were headed for Cleveland, Ohio in 2028, Detroit, Michigan in 2029 and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2030.
The Indiana Fever could change conferences with WNBA expansion
With all of this sudden movement and change in the league, fans have to be wondering how the current conference structure will be realigned. Specifically, fans are curious about which conference Caitlin Clark will be playing in. Below is the current conference alignment.
Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
|---|---|
Seattle Storm | New York Liberty |
Phoenix Mercury | Atlanta Dream |
Golden State Valkyries | Washington Mystics |
Las Vegas Aces | Connecticut Sun |
Dallas Wings | Chicago Sky |
Minnesota Lynx | Indiana Fever |
Los Angeles Sparks |
Several of these teams reside in the middle of the United States, so adding new times may draw new lines. There are long-standing conference rivalries, however, but the WNBA playoffs are such that conferences do not matter for more than scheduling purposes and the Commissioner's Cup.
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When looking at things geopgraphically, it makes sense that as the league approaches 18 teams, the nine western-most franchises would all be in the same conference. Here is how that realignment looks.
Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
|---|---|
Seattle Storm | New York Liberty |
Phoenix Mercury | Atlanta Dream |
Golden State Valkyries | Washington Mystics |
Las Vegas Aces | Connecticut Sun |
Dallas Wings | Indiana Fever |
Minnesota Lynx | *Toronto Tempo |
Los Angeles Sparks | *Philadelphia Expansion Team |
*Portland Expansion Team | *Cleveland Expansion Team |
**Chicago Sky | *Detroit Expansion Team |
Regrettably, this delineation separates the Sky and Fever as Chicago heads to the Western Conference. Fans are enamored with this matchup between Clark and Sky star Angel Reese, and having these teams in separate conferences would make it tough to schedule five games between the two like they have this season.
Obviously, these teams will not all be added at once, so it is very possible that things look a bit different. However, adding Portland and Toronto next season means that one more team will be in both conferences, so the unevenness remains.
There is a chance that the league simply opts to put Cleveland in the East to even things out in 2028, then places Detroit in the West and Philadelphia in the East over the following two seasons, simply to avoid Chicago having to change conferences.
However, logistically, this is how things should look for the WNBA, even if it means dividing two of the league's budding franchises with two of the biggest stars in the game.