Sports
Does Philly have an arena fit for the WNBA? The data offer some insight. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
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The league is considering dozens of cities for expansion. Philadelphia, the largest U.S. city never to have had a WNBA team, is in the running. Here’s something the league will be looking at.
The WNBA is expanding, and Philadelphia is on a short list of potential new homes for a franchise.
The league was planning to announce its expansion plans by the end of the year, but Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is now looking to add a team in 2025 at earliest, according to The Athletic.
The possibilities for a professional women’s sports franchise have been discussed here plenty. But what would that really look like — and, more importantly, what is the league looking for in a new city?
There’s no way to truly know that, of course, but we can use other teams as models for what could be. We know the WNBA is taking many factors into account as it researches cities, so we’ve done a bit of research of our own.
» READ MORE: Is Philly a women’s basketball city? The WNBA wants to know before it expands here.
Engelbert said the league is looking at ownership groups and arena possibilities for the cities that have submitted bids. So we’ve compiled a list of potential homes for a Philly WNBA franchise along with key data about each one. You can see how these venues compare to the existing teams’ arenas as well as year-over-year attendance trends for each team.
All attendance data is from Across the Timeline, while arena data is from the teams. Hover your cursor over the dots on each map for a detailed view of each arena.
The 12 existing WNBA teams tend to play in newer arenas — or at least arenas that recently have been renovated. (The Target Center, home of the Minnesota Lynx, was opened in 1990 but renovated twice in the last decade; likewise, the 30-year-old home of the Phoenix Mercury was renovated in 2020.) It doesn’t cost much to get into a game, either, as starting ticket prices range from $10 (Las Vegas Aces) to $25 (Minnesota Lynx; Phoenix Mercury) and average $17.38, according to data provided by eight of the 12 teams.
Current arena trends favor smaller, more intimate venues full of raucous fans, and the newest arena reflects that. The Washington Mystics’ Entertainment and Sports Arena, capacity 4,200, currently is the smallest venue.
Of course, a bigger arena has configurations for different events, and that’s an option here in Philly, as you’ll see below.
No matter where a potential WNBA team lands in Philly, it would share its home, just like most of its counterparts throughout the league. Other teams, such as the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings, share their arena with college teams, and the Palestra and Liacouras Center could be destinations with smaller capacities, like those currently favored by the league.
The last professional women’s basketball franchise to play in the city, the short-lived Philadelphia Rage, played at those venues, so there’s precedent. If a team were to choose to call South Philly and the Wells Fargo Center home, Comcast Spectacor president of business operations Valerie Camillo would be happy to host.
“The Wells Fargo Center would make a perfect home for a WNBA team here in Philly, and we’re more than ready to work with the Sixers to make that happen,” Camillo told The Inquirer in July, adding that they could set up the arena so that a less-than-full house wouldn’t feel empty.
» READ MORE: Why Philly doesn’t have a major pro women’s sports team, and how that could change
Neither Comcast nor the Sixers were taking the lead on an ownership bid as of July, so the question of who would step forward to lead an ownership group remains a mystery.
Even if a team comes to Philly, its first home may not be its last within the city. A shiny new facility, 76 Place at Market East, has a proposed opening date of 2031 and likely would be a state-of-the-art facility in need of summer tenants.
Philly has been a hotbed for women’s hoops, past, present, and future, but will enough people attend games to sustain a team? WNBA franchises averaged 9,248 fans their first season and 5,647 in 2022, two years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans naturally flock to more successful teams, and a Philly team would be no exception. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told The Inquirer in August that “Philly teams have got to compete,” and you can see that sentiment reflected across the country. Indiana, for example, averaged 11,267 fans in its first season but a league-worst 1,776 this year following a dismal 5-31 campaign (also a league worst).
But all hope is not lost for Indy. New York, once one of the top-drawing teams in terms of attendance, averaged just 2,238 fans in 2019 and finished 11th at 10-24. The Liberty were awarded the top pick in the 2020 draft and used it on Sabrina Ionescu, who quickly blossomed into one of the league’s top stars. Now, she and the Liberty are a playoff team that averaged a respectable 5,327 fans per game last season.
Similarly, the Seattle Storm, which led the league in attendance with 10,632 fans per game, have won four titles (tied for most in league history), made the playoffs, and last season boasted the league’s MVP in Breanna Stewart and a retiring superstar in Sue Bird.
Star power also helps the Chicago Sky, who struggled with attendance in their first few seasons. But their numbers steadily grew, and they averaged the fourth-highest total of fans in the league (7,180) this year after winning the 2021 WNBA title behind breakout star and North Philly native Kahleah Copper.
Now, we’ll wait to see if the Las Vegas Aces, who averaged 5,607 fans in 2022, also experience a jump in attendance after winning their first title this past season.
