Golden State Warriors granted WNBA enlargement franchise set to start play in 2025

Sports activities Information

The WNBA group will play in the identical enviornment the place Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Inexperienced are stars.

By JANIE McCAULEY, Related Press

October 5, 2023 | 2:00 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The WNBA is coming to the bay.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert introduced Thursday an enlargement franchise will come to the San Francisco Bay Space and start play in 2025.

Engelbert has confronted fixed questions on when the league would increase, to which she would reply when the time was proper.

“The fitting time, the appropriate second is at the moment,” Engelbert stated, whereas welcoming, “the subsequent era of leaders, moms and athletes.”

The NBA powerhouse Golden State Warriors have deliberate for this since earlier than the opening of Chase Heart in 2019. The WNBA group will play in the identical enviornment the place Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Inexperienced are stars.

“The Bay Space is the proper marketplace for a WNBA group, and we’re thrilled this chance has lastly come to fruition,” Warriors Co-Govt Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob stated. “We’ve got been serious about a WNBA franchise for a number of years, due partially to the wealthy historical past of ladies’s basketball within the Bay Space, and imagine now could be the best time to execute that imaginative and prescient and construct upon that legacy.”

Readily available for the announcement had been Corridor of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, former participant and present California coach Charmin Smith, WNBPA Director of Participant Relations Jayne Appel and different former stars similar to Sheryl Swoopes and Seimone Augustus.

Engelbert referred to as the Bay Space a “hub” for ladies’s basketball.

“This can be a thrilling time for the WNBA,” she stated.