If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.
Dan Gilbert, governor of the Cleveland Cavaliers, wants to bring a WNBA team back to Northeast Ohio.
Rock Entertainment Group, the company that hosts Gilbert’s sports and entertainment properties, informed CNBC on Wednesday that they intend to submit a proposal for a WNBA expansion team.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said in the past she hopes to expand the league to 16 women’s basketball teams by the year 2028. As women’s sports continues to be on the rise, several cities are coming to the bargaining table hoping to do business.
Officials in Cleveland, home to professional teams like the NBA’s Cavaliers, who are 15-1, NFL’s Browns, MLB’s Guardians and American Hockey League’s Monsters, believe they are good shape to host a women’s franchise.
“We have this unique convergence of infrastructure, culture and these foundational pieces that we think make Northeast Ohio, and specifically Cleveland, a great opportunity to expand from a WNBA perspective,” Nic Barlage, Cleveland Cavaliers CEO, told CNBC.
To drive his point home, he mentioned the Cavaliers recently announcing that they are partnering with the Cleveland Clinic to create a brand-new Performance Center to provide state-of-the-art training for both the Cavs and the public. The Cavs also have an existing practice facility in Independence, Ohio, which they said could be made to house a WNBA team.
Barlage said Cleveland also has a long-decorated history of passionate fans that stick by their teams through thick and thin.
“Cleveland is a real crazy sports town,” said David Gilbert, CEO of the Cleveland Sports Commission. “It’s so closely tied to the identity of the city that’s had, the last couple of generations, some tough times.”
As stated previously, the Cleveland Cavs are off to their best start in history, currently sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 15-1 record, with their only loss coming against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
Embed from Getty ImagesEngelbert discusses expansion in October, prior to the WNBA Finals, which was the New York Liberty versus the Minnesota Lynx, saying there is no shortage of competition for an expansion team, with at least 10 cities expressing interest. Potential suitors also include Denver, Miami, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
“The good news is we have a lot of demand from many cities,” she said. “I think the more people are watching the WNBA and seeing what we’re growing here and seeing these players and the product on the court, more people are interested in having it in their cities.”
With Englebert leading the charge, the league has already flourished and seen some expansion during her tenure. The WNBA’s 13th franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, will kick off their season in 2025, and Toronto and Portland, Oregon, were awarded the 14th and 15th franchises earlier this year.
“We’re not in a huge rush. We’d like to bring it in in ’27 or no later than ’28,” Engelbert said in regards to a timeline for a 16th team.
The league made it clear that it is looking at a wide range of factors in a city when it comes to picking an expansion team, including practice facilities, a committed ownership group, demographics and Fortune 500 companies.
The WNBA has chosen investment bank Allen & Company to head the expansion process. Coincidentally, Allen and Company also helped Gilbert when he purchased the Cavs in 2005, 19 years ago.
This would not be Cleveland’s first rodeo in the WNBA. The city hosted one of the WNBA’S original franchises, the Cleveland Rockers from 1997-2003. The team disbanded after seven seasons as the team’s owner, Gordon Gund, blamed low attendance rates and said he could not find a way to make the team worth their investments.
“I have invested in it now for seven years trying to find a business model for it to work in our marketplace,” Gund said in 2003. “The fans we had were very enthusiastic and very supportive. We just didn’t have enough.”
The league did everything they could but were unsuccessful when trying to find new owners, and Gund turned his focus to the Cavs and their pursuit of Cleveland’s hero and Akron native LeBron James.
A lot has changed in the 20-plus years since the Rockers disbanded, as the WNBA and women’s sports are experiencing major improvements.
The WNBA last month delivered its most-watched finals game in a quarter of a century. The league also saw fans coming out in astronomical numbers, giving the WNBA its best attendance record in 22 years. And it is translating to the wallet, merchandise sales are booming more than 600% from 2023. That has a lot to do with WNBA sensations Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
Cleveland as a city, has also gone through a resurgence and a face lift, as well, in part kicked off by James’ return to the city back in 2014-2018. The Washington Post Editorial Board even published a piece in January calling Cleveland “America’s best example of turning around a dying downtown.”
“We firmly believe we sit at the nexus of the Mediterranean of the Midwest and there’s no reason why we can’t have and manifest all the same opportunities that some of the higher growth markets you may see in the southern half of the country have,” Barlage said.
Since 1994, the Cavs, Monsters and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse have generated a staggering $6.5 billion in total output, according to the Cavs 2024 Community Impact Report. The Cavaliers home arena hosted more than 150 events this year, including the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four, won by the South Carolina Gamecocks, helping to stimulate millions for the city.
“I just feel extraordinarily confident that, should a team be given to Cleveland, in part because of the city, in part because of what sports means here, in part because of the Cavs, it would immediately be a huge success,” Gilbert said.
