WNBA Finals to expand to best-of-seven format in 2025, commissioner announces

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Oct 10, 2024

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NEW YORK — The 2024 WNBA Finals will go down in history.

Not because the series features the league’s two top teams in the Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx, but because it will be the last Finals played in a best-of-five format.

The Finals will expand to a best-of-seven format in 2025, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced before Game 1 at Barclays Center. Those future Finals will follow a 2-2-1-1-1 schedule, with the higher seed hosting the first, second, fifth and seventh games.

The WNBA will become the latest professional league with a best-of-seven championship round, joining the NBA, NHL and MLB.

And while the first round will remain a best-of-three, starting next year it will follow a 1-1-1 schedule, as opposed to the top seed hosting the first two games and the lower seed getting the decisive Game 3 as currently constructed.

“We have contemplated both these changes since the pandemic, and we would have done it in the current year, but with the Olympic break this year, it wasn’t possible,” Engelbert said.

Engelbert also said the regular season will expand from 40 to 44 games next year.

The changes follow a regular season in which the WNBA garnered record viewership, thanks in large part to the debuts of superstar rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.

The league will welcome an expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, next season, and it hopes to add a 16th team by 2027 or 2028. There are 10-12 viable options for the next expansion team, Engelbert said.