NEW YORK — WNBA president Donna Orender said Sunday the league is looking to add two teams in the next five years.
“I’m stunned by the quality and the amount of talent that is not making our league,” Orender said at Madison Square Garden while attending the New York Liberty’s season opener against the Connecticut Sun. “Negotiations are always complex, they don’t happen necessarily exactly like you’d want them, but probably two teams in the next five years.”
The 14-team league, which began its 12th season this weekend, has expanded twice in the last three years, adding the Chicago Sky in 2006 and the Atlanta Dream this season. In between, the Charlotte Sting folded after the 2006 season.
Each team is allowed to have a maximum of 13 players on the roster, with 11 active for each game.
“So that is really a net addition of 26 jobs, which is not a lot of jobs,” Orender said of the future expansion plans. “I spent time with the L.A. GM on Friday, and the players they cut could start for an expansion team today.”
“There’s an explosion of talent, and explosion of the game and that is what’s going to continue to make this league grow.”
The WNBA started with eight teams in 1997, and grew to a high of 16 in 2000 after adding four teams for that season. However, the league was down to 13 teams by 2004 after three folded — Portland and Miami after the 2002 season, and Cleveland a year later. Also, Utah moved to San Antonio and Orlando was sold to the Mohegan Tribe and relocated to Connecticut.
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