WNBA expands common season to 50 video games beginning in 2027, the longest schedule in league historical past

If you’ve got ever thought to your self, “I simply cannot get enough WNBA,” it is your fortunate day.

The WNBA introduced Wednesday it should increase its regular-season schedule from 44 video games to 50 starting in 2027, marking the longest season in league historical past.

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A basketball with Wilson and WNBA logos goes by means of the web throughout a WNBA recreation between the Phoenix Mercury and the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Sept. 6, 2025. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)

“Demand for the WNBA has never been greater, and expanding to a 50-game regular season reflects the extraordinary momentum we are seeing across the league,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned in an announcement.

“This move reflects our commitment to growing the game and creating more opportunities for fans to watch the best players in the world and experience the extraordinary talent and competition that define the WNBA.”

The transfer was made attainable by the league’s new collective bargaining settlement, which permits for as much as 50 regular-season video games in 2027 and 2028 earlier than doubtlessly growing once more to 52 video games starting in 2029.

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The WNBA has steadily expanded its schedule since launching in 1997. During the league’s inaugural season, groups performed simply 28 video games. That quantity finally grew to 34 video games, then 40 and at last 44 starting with the 2025 season. The solely exception got here through the COVID years, when the schedule was briefly decreased.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks earlier than the WNBA basketball draft in New York on April 13, 2026. (Pamela Smith/AP)

The announcement comes because the league continues an aggressive enlargement push.

The league added the Toronto Tempo and Portland this season, bringing its whole to fifteen franchises. More development is on the way in which, with enlargement groups in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia scheduled to start play in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively.

The WNBA emblem is displayed on the jumbotron at TD Garden in Boston earlier than the Indiana Fever performed the Connecticut Sun on July 15, 2025. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire through Getty Images)

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The longer schedule additionally supplies extra stock for the WNBA’s rising checklist of media companions, which now consists of ESPN, CBS, NBC, Amazon, ION and USA Sports.

Whether followers wished six extra video games is one other dialog totally. But with a media rights deal value greater than $3 billion, the WNBA is not within the enterprise of placing fewer video games on tv.