Oakland Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan is rallying for her metropolis to be the house of the WNBA’s subsequent franchise.
Kaplan is predicted to introduce a decision Tuesday that can urge the WNBA to carry a group to Oakland, in line with a information launch from her workplace.
Kaplan believes Oakland is “ideally suited” for a group due to its present basketball fanbase and present area availability. She additionally talked about that town shares core values with the WNBA, arguably essentially the most progressive sports activities league in North America.
“Oakland is a neighborhood that values social justice, equality, and ladies’s rights. These ideas align with these of the WNBA, and we're prepared to maneuver ahead as a accomplice in advancing these targets as the house for a brand new WNBA group,” Kaplan mentioned in a written assertion. “I respectfully request your assist for this decision.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert beforehand mentioned she hoped to establish a metropolis or two by the tip of the 12 months, with a objective of getting a group up and working as quickly because the 2024 season.
As discussions round enlargement proceed, the Bay Space has emerged as a chief place to deal with the league’s latest franchise, with two teams — the Golden State Warriors and the Oakland-based African American Sports activities and Leisure Group (AASEG) — expressing curiosity in proudly owning a group.
AASEG, a gaggle of outstanding native Black enterprise leaders with a Black women-led possession group that features 16-year WNBA star Alana Beard, has been pushing since final October to carry a group to Oakland. The coalition has unique negotiating rights to buy the Metropolis of Oakland’s half of the Coliseum complicated, however doesn’t have prior experiencing proudly owning and working a sports activities franchise.
In the meantime, Warriors proprietor Joe Lacob, a long-time supporter of girls’s basketball, has known as it “a dream” to carry a WNBA group to the Bay and already has found out a successful infrastructure for a profitable franchise. He’s failed twice in his pursuit to relocate different franchises once they have been up on the market.
Final week, Engelbert mentioned the Bay Space is “excessive on our record” of goal enlargement markets.
“If you consider when you’re working a knowledge evaluation which informs, you'll find the appropriate possession teams, the psychographics, the demographics, the NCAA — you noticed Nneka Ogwumike was inducted into the Stanford Corridor of Fame [Friday], congrats to her,” Engelbert mentioned at her annual information convention forward of the WNBA Finals. “The W is in all places proper now. However such an awesome market on the market given ladies’s faculty basketball and extremely popular within the Bay Space.”
The WNBA at present has 12 groups situated throughout the U.S. It hasn’t expanded since 2008 when it added the Atlanta Dream franchise.