The race to safe a spot within the WNBA’s enlargement period is in full swing, however a current bid from a Nashville-based group may very well be recreation, set, match.
In accordance with media experiences, Nashville Predators proprietor Invoice Haslam submitted a bid to the WNBA for Nashville to obtain the league’s sixteenth franchise. He has the celebrities — plus an ideal crew identify — to make the WNBA’s determination simple.
Backed by Tennessee sports activities legends Candace Parker and Peyton Manning, who performed collegiately at Tennessee, plus nation music stars Tim McGraw and Religion Hill, Nashville’s investor group has monumental star wattage.
The potential franchise already has a superb identify picked out: the Summitt, in honor of teaching icon Pat Summitt, who gained 1,098 video games as head coach at Tennessee (1974-2012). She additionally introduced the Vols eight nationwide titles and reached 18 Last Fours from 1982-2008, establishing the Vols because the premier ladies’s basketball program of the Nineteen Eighties by means of the 2000s.
She died in 2016 on the age of 64 following a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s illness.
The crew identify is an ideal strategy to honor arguably the best ladies’s basketball coach ever whereas additionally reminding the world of Tennessee’s significance to ladies’s basketball.
Paired with the assets on the possession group’s disposal, it appears like an ideal match.
Per The Tennessean, “A part of Haslam’s bid consists of building of a observe facility … which might be used completely by the WNBA crew,” whereas the Summitt would play their residence video games at Bridgestone Enviornment, residence of the Predators.
Portland was awarded the league’s fifteenth franchise in September 2024 and can start enjoying in 2026, together with the Toronto Tempo, which was introduced on Might 23, 2024.
The Golden State Valkyries will play their inaugural season in 2025, with their first recreation scheduled on Might 16 in opposition to the Sparks.
Sports activities Enterprise Journal reported in September that “the WNBA has 12 to fifteen legit bidders for its subsequent enlargement franchise,” noting Nashville amongst a listing of cities that included Philadelphia, Austin, Kansas Metropolis, Miami, Denver and Cleveland.
In November, Cavaliers proprietor Dan Gilbert’s Rock Leisure Group introduced its WNBA bid. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has additionally expressed curiosity in luring the league to Kansas Metropolis.
On Thursday, the NWSL formally introduced Denver was awarded the league’s sixteenth franchise, changing into the primary ladies’s skilled sports activities franchise to function within the space. It begins play in 2026, and its reception within the space might inform the WNBA’s considering. The league plans for its subsequent enlargement franchise to start enjoying in 2028.
The WNBA has a number of intriguing choices, however none tops what Tennessee gives.
