No Offseason Newsletter 🏀 | This is The Athletic’s women’s basketball newsletter. Sign up here to receive No Offseason directly in your inbox.Welcome back to No Offseason. We’re so glad you’re here. Today:
It’s been quite the week, and we’ve got a lot to get to. Let’s go!Expansion: Schedule grows to 50 games in 2027Want more WNBA? You’ve (almost) got it.The league will expand its schedule to 50 games in 2027, nearly a 50 percent increase in games from the 2019 season (34 games), it announced last week.After the shortened pandemic seasons in 2020 and 2021, the league had 36 games in 2022, 40 in 2023 and 2024, 44 in 2025 and 2026 and now … 50 in 2027. The CBA even includes a provision to grow the schedule to 52 games in 2029. (For comparison, the NBA has an 82-game schedule.)That means there is a lot more regular-season basketball, without any corresponding increase to the most fun part of the season: the playoffs.
On the one hand, if the league keeps expanding — it’ll reach 18 teams in 2030 — and keeps the postseason field at eight, the regular season will retain some stakes because it’ll be harder to qualify for the playoffs.
But that’s still many more games to squeeze into essentially the same calendar footprint because the WNBA doesn’t want to butt up against the NCAA Tournament or face logistical challenges with NBA arenas the longer it extends into October and November.
