WNBA teams failed in Cleveland and Detroit before. Will it be different this time?

New York Times

09-07-2025

As Deanna Nolan prepared to travel from her Detroit area home to New York City for the rollout of her hometown's new WNBA expansion franchise last week, the former five-time All-Star reached for a suitcase she hadn't used in more than a decade.
She insisted she didn't know what was inside the brown Tommy Bahama roller bag before she selected it. She said she hadn't traveled with the suitcase in 15 years. But as she rummaged through one of its pockets, scrambling to pack for her Eastbound trip, Nolan found an original Detroit Shock luggage tag.
Advertisement
'It's a sign,' she said.
Nolan had to travel with that bag as a member of the former WNBA team, with which she won three championships. She made sure to bring the tag to the unveiling at the league's New York City Midtown office.
Ten days ago, the WNBA announced three expansion franchises: Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. Philadelphia is a first-time WNBA home, but Cleveland and Detroit have been WNBA markets before. Cleveland had the Rockers from the league's inaugural season in 1997 until 2003. Detroit had the Shock from 1998-2009.
Stakeholders with the new teams in Cleveland and Detroit are confident the second iteration will be more lasting than the original.
'We have a team and an enterprise that's ready to embrace this,' said Nic Barlage, the CEO of Rock Entertainment Group, which owns the new WNBA franchise and NBA's Cavaliers. 'That is a key differentiator for us.'
The change starts at the top, with both franchises being led by new ownership groups from their past versions. The original Rockers had been owned and operated by Gordon Gund, a businessman who ran the Rockers and Cavaliers.
When the Rockers folded, Gund cited low attendance and a business model he said was no longer viable. He said the Rockers did not turn a profit in any of its seven seasons, and they drew an average of just 7,400 people at 20,000-seat Gund Arena in their final season.
As the franchise floundered, Gund even wondered whether the Cavaliers winning the 2003 NBA Draft lottery, and with it the right to select LeBron James, could impact the city's WNBA future.
'That can maybe be a consideration in having us continue for an additional time (with the Rockers), while maybe not doing as well as we would like,' he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in June 2003. 'But that doesn't change the basic principle that we want it to be a viable business model.'
Advertisement
Much has changed around the WNBA since then, of course. The league is experiencing a significant period of growth across a number of key metrics (TV viewership, merchandise sales, attendance, corporate partnerships). Ownership groups of the three expansion franchises paid a league-record $250 million expansion fee for their respective teams, and teams across the league are on far more stable footing than they were at the end of the aughts. A WNBA franchise hasn't folded since 2009 nor has one relocated since 2018.
Minnesota Lynx president Cheryl Reeve was an assistant coach in Cleveland in 2003 and worked for the Shock as an assistant coach and later as general manager from 2006-09. She said that in the early aughts 'it took a lot to get NBA franchises behind their WNBA franchises.'
'What I hope is that both Detroit and Cleveland learned a lot about their experiences the first time around,' Reeve said. 'I anticipate an overall more committed experience because that's what's necessary. Anything short of that, (and) it won't be as successful as it should be.'
'There was a period of time where people were investing in women's basketball because they felt it was the right thing to do,' said Los Angeles Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley, who played for the Rockers in 1998.
And now?
'People realize this is a business, and the intention to be profitable (is a focus) as well,' Pebley said.
According to Sportico, WNBA franchise valuations grew 180 percent since 2024, with the New York Liberty recently selling a minority stake in the franchise for a professional women's sports team record $450 million.
A demonstrated willingness to invest was critical in the WNBA landing on each ownership group. By the time the Cleveland WNBA franchise begins play, Gilbert and his group will have invested $1.1 billion in sports and entertainment infrastructure in Northeast Ohio. Barlage said that Cleveland WNBA will 'invest significantly' in the already existing Cavaliers practice facility, which the WNBA team will use full-time when it begins play.
Advertisement
In Detroit, Tom Gores, owner of the NBA's Pistons, and the rest of the franchise's ownership group will build a new practice facility for the WNBA team. The first version of the Shock was owned by Bill Davidson, who also owned the Pistons, and practiced in the Pistons' facility.
Davidson died in March 2009, and Detroit's longtime coach, Bill Laimbeer, resigned three games into the ensuing WNBA season thrusting the franchise into further uncertainty. That October, an ownership group from Tulsa purchased the team and relocated it there.
'The fact of the matter is that the economic realities have caused us to make this decision,' Tom Wilson, then-president of Place Sports and Entertainment, said at the time. The Shock, he said, lost $2 million in their final season.
Arn Tellem, the Pistons' vice chairman, said members of Detroit's investor group went to Shock games. He said local business leaders and civic leaders are re-energized by the recent news. Detroit's ownership group also includes NBA Hall of Famers Grant Hill and Chris Webber, as well as Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp and quarterback Jared Goff.
There is broader interest in the league as well, and Tellem is confident the WNBA's current financial footing puts new teams in a position to succeed.
'The league is at another level as far as interest and coverage,' he said. '(WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert) made the point, it wouldn't have worked five or 10 years ago, but today, it's on a huge rise, and I know that fans are going to be overjoyed with this decision.'
Investment will be critical for both groups to avoid repeating shortcomings. How both groups recognize the importance in honoring their history is also an open question, though neither committed to picking their old names when the expansion news was announced.
Even with the Shock relocating more than a decade ago, Nolan has felt the Shock's presence for years. She recalled fans stopping her at restaurants and inside grocery stores to voice their affinity for the Shock. For years, she said, they've asked her when the city was bringing a team back.
Now she can say they officially are.
'It's a long time coming,' Nolan said. 'I've been waiting.'
(Photo, from left, of Ruth Riley, Cheryl Ford, Swin Cash, Deanna Nolan and Barbara Ferris: Tom Pidgeon / Getty Images)