Basketball-Cavs owner Gilbert eyes Cleveland WNBA team

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By Amy Tennery

(Reuters) – Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert plans to pursue a new WNBA team, his holding company Rock Entertainment Group said on Wednesday, hoping to bring women’s basketball back to Cleveland more than 20 years after the city’s previous team folded.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said she hopes to see the league expand to 16 teams by 2028 and recently announced that teams in Toronto and Portland will begin play in 2026.

Another expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, will join next season.

Rock Entertainment Group said in a statement to Reuters that it was committed to “diversifying our platform to provide access to sport and equality on many levels”.

“It has long been woven into our mission to utilize our platform to unite our community in ways that drive equal opportunities across the board,” the statement said.

“To that end, we are actively pursuing bringing a WNBA expansion team to Cleveland.”

The announcement came amid a surge of interest in the WNBA driven by a popular rookie class including Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark.

Clark sent television ratings sky-rocketing during her final year at Iowa where she broke the all-time collegiate scoring record before earning Rookie of the Year honors in her debut WNBA season.

Rock Entertainment Group pointed to a handful of recent sport’s mega-events in Cleveland to support their bid, including the women’s Final Four this year that shattered television records.

Cleveland hosted one of the league’s original franchises, the Rockers, but the team folded in 2003 with the previous owner blaming poor attendances.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Ed Osmond)