Aces applaud opportunities created by WNBA expansion

Chelsea Gray didn’t grow up with easily accessible WNBA basketball.

Hayward, California, the All-Star point guard’s birthplace, sits just a few miles south of Oracle Arena, the former home of the Golden State Warriors. However, if she wanted to see WNBA basketball in person, her family had to make the 97-mile trek northeast on Interstate 80 to watch the Sacramento Monarchs.

So it’s a bit of an understatement to say she’s looking forward to seeing the WNBA’s inaugural expansion into the Bay Area.

“The little kid inside of me is so excited,” Gray said Friday.

The WNBA announced an agreement for an expansion franchise with the Warriors’ ownership group Thursday. The league’s 13th team will debut in 2025 and play games at the Chase Center in San Francisco while being headquartered in Oakland. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert confirmed the league hopes to add another expansion franchise to reach an even 14 teams ahead of 2025.

It’s the league’s first expansion since 2008, when the Atlanta Dream joined the league as the 14th team. Shortly after, though, the Houston Comets and the Monarchs folded in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Coach Becky Hammon was playing her 10th season in the WNBA when the Dream entered the league. She said she’s glad Bay Area sports fans, who’ve long supported the Stanford and California women’s basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament, finally get a WNBA team to watch.

She was also excited by the sentiments of Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob, who promised a WNBA championship within five seasons of his currently-unnamed franchise’s debut. He made a similar declaration after buying Golden State in 2010. The Warriors have since won four NBA Championships.

“You don’t want to get into the arena if you don’t think you can win,” Hammon said.

Hammon and All-Star guard Kelsey Plum also said anyone else interested in an expansion team should have a similar mindset. The rewards can be seen in this seasons’ WNBA finalists. Aces owner Mark Davis and New York Liberty owners Joe and Clara Tsai have made major investments in team infrastructure since joining the league in 2021 and 2019, respectively, and now have teams capable of winning the championship.

“It’s really cool to see the league grow,” said Plum, who is also first vice president of the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association. “I really would like ownership that obviously values players and are going to put a lot of money and investment into that.”

More teams also expands opportunities for the players. Currently the WNBA only includes 144 roster spots, and many teams — including the Aces — choose to carry less than 12 players to maximize their cap space.

All-Stars like Gray and Plum will always have a place in the league, but for players who previously had to scrap their way into the WNBA, 12 more roster spots (possibly increasing to 24) is a massive boon.

Aces center Kiah Stokes is an established WNBA starter now, but only ended up in Las Vegas after being waived by the Liberty in 2021. She said players often don’t get a chance to grow or develop in the WNBA because it’s so difficult to make a roster.

Liberty wing Betnijah Laney, for example, played on four other teams before becoming an All-Star for New York in 2021. “(Laney) just wasn’t in the right organization,” Stokes said. “Now look, she’s a star. So I think more opportunities, more spots — it’s going to help grow the league.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on X.