Frequently Asked Questions

The Women’s National Basketball Association, or WNBA, is a professional basketball league featuring the best women’s basketball players in the world.

The WNBA was founded on April 24, 1996, and the first season began in 1997, making it the oldest women's professional sports league in North America. When the WNBA was launched, it featured eight teams: Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and the Utah Starzz.

There are currently 13 teams – six in the Eastern Conference and seven in the Western conference.

The teams and their conferences are as follows: Atlanta Dream (Eastern Conference), Chicago Sky (Eastern Conference), Connecticut Sun (Eastern Conference), Dallas Wings (Western Conference), Golden State Valkyries (Western Conference), Indiana Fever (Eastern Conference), Las Vegas Aces (Western Conference), Los Angeles Sparks (Western Conference), New York Liberty (Eastern Conference), Minnesota Lynx (Western Conference), Phoenix Mercury (Western Conference), Seattle Storm (Western Conference) and Washington Mystics (Eastern Conference).

15 teams will play in the 2026 season with the addition of Toronto and Portland.

The WNBA season takes place from May - October annually, and this season each WNBA team will play 44 games.

Each WNBA team has a minimum roster size of 11 players and a maximum roster size of 12 players, as outlined in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Each quarter of play in the WNBA lasts 10 minutes.

Just like the NBA, the shot clock is 24 seconds.

Download the rule book here.

Want to watch WNBA players work live and in person? Tickets for every team are available on each team’s website or by clicking here.

On social media, you can follow the WNBA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat (@WNBA), Giphy and TikTok (@WNBA).

Click here to view the WNBA’s schedule in the United States.

In Canada, during the regular season, certain WNBA games are available throughout on SportsNet (SN), The Sports Network (TSN), Amazon Prime Video (Prime Video), CBS Sports Network, NBA TV Canada, Meta and X (formerly known as Twitter).

All other regular season games plus those on Meta and X are streamed LIVE on WNBA League Pass. All televised games are available on WNBA League Pass on demand after the game, wherever and whenever!

ION is an American broadcast television network that is available throughout most of the United States via antennas, on pay TV providers, and streaming services.

ION airs all regular-season Friday night games in 2024 in the United States. All Friday games will be played in two windows, either at 7:30 PM ET and/or at 9:30 or 10:00 PM ET.

On some Fridays, more than one game will be played at the same time. When that occurs, one game will air nationally in the U.S. on ION, while other(s) will air in the local markets in the U.S. via a digital antenna or certain pay TV providers. Check your local listings or pay TV provider channel guides to find which games are airing in your local market.

On www.ionwnba.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page to “Find ION in your area” and input your U.S. zip code.

On www.ionwnba.com, scroll to the bottom to see a current list of streaming platforms that offer ION in the U.S. Most streaming platforms will distribute only the nationally televised games. However, in the U.S., YouTube TV subscribers will be able to view their local games on a standalone basis.

If you are unable to access the ION-distributed game you are looking for in your area in the U.S. and via your preferred distributor, you will need to subscribe to WNBA League Pass to watch. All ION games are also available in the U.S. via WNBA League Pass without local blackouts.

The WNBA Draft is held annually, usually in April.

The 2024 Draft was held on April 16. Caitlin Clark, out of Iowa, was the No. 1 overall pick to the Indiana Fever.

WNBA teams select from a pool of up-and-coming college basketball players, as well as others playing in leagues across the world.

The league requires domestic draft entrants to be at least 22 years old during the year in which the draft takes place and to have no remaining college eligibility or to renounce any future college eligibility. International draftees must be at least 20 years old during the year in which the draft takes place.

The four teams that did not make the playoffs are entered into the Draft Lottery. Starting with the 2017 Draft, lottery odds are determined by taking into account the team’s two-year cumulative record.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) is an agreement between the league (on behalf of its member teams) and the union (on behalf of WNBA players) that sets out the terms and conditions of employment for professional basketball players in the WNBA, as well as the rights and obligations of the WNBA, WNBA teams, the WNBPA, and the players. It establishes things like the salary cap, player benefits, and more.

The current CBA between the WNBA and WNBPA started in 2020 and provides for the agreement to remain in effect through the 2027 season unless either the WNBA or the WNBPA opts to terminate the CBA following the 2025 season. On October 21, 2024, the WNBPA notified the WNBA that it was exercising its option to terminate the CBA following the 2025 season.

The WNBPA’s decision to exercise its right to terminate the CBA early (or “opt out”) will allow the WNBA and WNBPA to work together to reach an agreement on a new CBA that is fair for all and lays the foundation for growth and success for years to come.

The WNBA and the WNBPA will work together on a new CBA that will take effect beginning with the 2026 season. The current CBA remains in effect through the 2025 season.

No, the opt-out has no impact on the 2025 season.

As Commissioner Engelbert has shared, the goal is to expand the League from 12 teams to 16 teams.

The league announced in 2023 that Golden State Valkyries will be the 13th team and start playing in the 2025 season. In 2024, Toronto and Portland were granted the 14th and 15th franchises, respectively, and are scheduled to start playing in the 2026 season.

We will find out which WNBA players may be the first to play for the Golden State Valkyries during the Expansion Draft, which will be held on December 6, 2024 ahead of the team's inaugural season in 2025.

Details about the Expansion Draft for Toronto and Portland will be released at a later date ahead of the 2026 season.

Unless a specific game time is required for an allotted national broadcast/streaming window, each WNBA team selects the start time for their home games, taking into account the optimal start times for fans in their market. The WNBA is similar to other sports leagues that have a lot of regular season games start at the same time to accommodate fans who attend games (such as NFL Sundays, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc.).

The league office works with the teams and arenas, who submit to the league a list of dates on which the venues are available. The league then creates the schedule while factoring in additional elements such as, game density, travel, available windows provided by the broadcast networks and streaming partners, key matchups creating compelling national broadcast content, etc.

While WNBA teams infrequently play games on back-to-back dates, “back-to-backs” do occur in the WNBA as teams play more games than those on the college level.  In scheduling games, the WNBA, teams, and our broadcast and streaming partners take into account such variables as arena availability, the maximization of weekend games, travel efficiency, etc. and work to minimize the number of back-to-backs or where possible, schedule them so that the team having the back-to-back has two home games in a row.

Dates on which there are no games are a product of a variety of factors including the potential lack of arena availability, an effort to reduce back-to-back games for a team(s), scheduling for reasonable travel by teams, fan demand in attending games on weekends versus weeknights particularly during the school year, filling predetermined broadcast windows (such as scheduling a minimum of two games on Fridays for the standard ION doubleheader the next night, having teams available for predetermined CBS and/or ABC windows on Saturdays, etc.).

Not all games are intended to be nationally televised (similar to other sports with a number of games at or above that of the WNBA). The WNBA has a set number of national TV games as agreed upon with our broadcast and streaming partners, some games are purposely reserved for local/regional broadcast partners, and all non- nationally broadcast or streamed games are available on WNBA League Pass.