Dawn Staley asks WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert what Philly can do to get an expansion team
North Philly's own couldn't resist asking when women's professional basketball could return to Philadelphia.
Dawn Staley’s affinity for her hometown is no secret.
So when she had an opportunity to talk to another “Philly girl” about the prospects of getting a local WNBA team, she didn’t hold back.
Staley, serving as a color analyst at the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup, asked WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert what Philadelphia could do to be awarded a WNBA franchise.
“We’re growing as a league, as the teams,” Engelbert said. “We see the fandom going on, and we’ve got a lot of fandom outside of the cities in which we play. So we’re doing this huge data analysis on all the cities would be great — Philly is on that list. Bay Area, Toronto, there’s a lot of others. Portland, Denver, Austin. We’ve been contacted by a lot of cities, including ownership groups in Philly. We need to find the right arena situation, the right ownership groups that are going to be committed for the long-term and really just help us grow the sport.”
» READ MORE: Why Philly doesn’t have a major pro women’s sports team, and how that could change
WNBA’s pending expansion is no secret, and Philly has been tossed around as a potential destination a lot. Staley is among the more vocal advocates for a local team, so it’s no surprise she was eager to ask the question of Engelbert, a native of Collingswood.
“I think Philly’s ready,” Staley told The Inquirer earlier this month at the WNBA All-Star Game. “But if Philly’s going to be ready, they’ve got to go blitz it. And you’ve got to have some sustainability. You’ve got to plan for when the novelty wears off, where you go from there, and you’ve got to keep pumping it.”
Englebert also gave a shout-out to Chicago Sky standout Kahleah Copper — “another Philly girl” — as part of the changing of the guard with young stars like former South Carolina star and Staley pupil A’ja Wilson taking the reins from retiring stars like Sue Bird. Copper had 18 points and eight rebounds as the Sky lost, 93-83, to the Aces. Candace Parker led the Sky with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Kelsey Plum (24 points, six assists) and A’ja Wilson (17 points, 17 rebounds, and six blocks) helped lead the Aces. Chelsea Gray (19 points, four rebounds, and five assists) was named MVP of the game.
Staley had one final question for Engelbert: Could a potential expansion city host an All-Star game?
“All-Star games, preseason games, you might see us dabble in that a little bit,” Engelbert said. “Especially when we can innovate around the format of the game, too, and things like that, and see if we can draw that fandom in from some of these cities, absolutely that’s on the table. we’re looking at it. Also globalizing the game. Someone was just telling me we had tweets around this game from 32 different countries in 30 languages. So we’re really globalizing the game too.”