The WNBA is preparing to assign its 16th franchise to Cleveland, several sources told SBJ, with an approximate offer with a record value of 250 million dollars.
The sources have expressed the chances of expansion of Cleveland which can reach 90% – with an announcement expected at the latest in March – and said that the WNBA had redesigned its initial plan to add a single team and could assign one or two franchises Additional to bring its Total League to the total of the League to 18 clubs. The presumed leaders for the second and third teams are Philadelphia, Houston, Nashville, Detroit and Miami, the league reiterating this evening that nothing is finalized.
“The WNBA has received official offers from many ownership groups interested in various markets and we are currently evaluating these proposals,” a spokesman for the WNBA said in a statement.
Cleveland is expected to join the League for the 2028 season by playing Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. They will be resumed like the Rockers of Cleveland, an original WNBA franchise which fell after the 2003 season when the former owner Gordon Gund could not sell the team due to income from overturn and erratic attendance . But during the two decades that followed, the exponential growth and popularity of the League led to an increase in expansion costs. The Golden State Valkyries, the 13th league franchise in May in May, paid $ 50 million to reach the WNBA, while Toronto and Portland – the 14th and 15th franchises – cost $ 115 million and 125 million respectively Dollars. Now it has doubled.
Two weeks ago, the WNBA applied to the trademark, as well as the names of three other old franchises: The Houston Comets, The Detroit Shock, the Miami Sol and the Sting of Charlotte – all the indices of which could be In the race for the 17th and 18th teams, but not a complete gift.
Sources have said that Houston “is probably the most positioned” for the 17th team largely because the Rockets have recently built a 75,000 square feet training installation, the owner Tilman Fertitta would have more than $ 10 billion and That they have an NBA infrastructure which appeals to the fact that the NBA is attractive for the NBA infrastructure which appeal to the fact that the NBA infrastructure makes it possible to call on the mouth league.
“Comets are also an incredible brand, and it is amazing that they even left the League,” said a source, referring to the quadruple co -comic champions in 2008 due to 4 million dollars annually.
Philadelphia is probably another clear advantage, said sources, and the indications are that when the owner of the 76ers Josh Harris joined for a new arena in the south of Philadelphia, the priority was to host a team of WNBA with Sixers and Flyers.
Steve Greenberg, Managing Director of Allen & Co. – who oversees the expansion process on behalf of the WNBA – refused to comment on all the auctions. But sources have said that the offers varied from $ 200 million to $ 250 million and that the riders probably won the 16th franchise with their high -end proposal of $ 250 million, their NBA infrastructure and their booming facilities .
The owner Dan Gilbert and the riders, who refused to comment, build the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, which will be the centerpiece of the master plan of Gilbert and Bedrock at 3.5 billion dollars of the Cuyahoga river. The NBA riders would operate from this installation, while the Rockers would move into the current training center of the Cavalier Pointe in Independence, Ohio, with two training grounds, a team theater and a bodybuilding room in A distant distant wood. setting. Gilbert, who would have paid more than $ 1 billion in the Cleveland sports and entertainment ecosystem since the purchase of horsemen in 2005, would also continue to modernize new Facility Rockers.
In all, 13 cities have submitted to the next WNBA extension teams: St Louis, Kansas City, Austin, Jacksonville, Nashville, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Denver, Charlotte and Milwaukee. Under the NBA collective negotiation agreement, the current NBA players can buy up to 4% of a team until a owner of the current league is not part of the call for call for calling Offers. The Jayson Tatum of the Celtics invested in the offer of Saint-Louis and the Kevin during Suns in Austin’s offer. The quarter-Arrière of chefs Patrick Mahomes is part of the Kansas City group, and the former star of the WNBA Candace Parker is an investor in the Nashville group.
As to know why the WNBA is ready to potentially face three teams instead of another – with the last two probably arriving in 2029 or 2030 – the meaning is that there have been several offers approaching $ 250 million.
“How do you get away from three-quarters of a billion dollars?” Said a source.