For a few years as the WNBA regular season and playoffs have become longer and longer and longer, one figured that ultimately this would carry over into the playoffs.
It was a few years ago when it was announced that the playoffs would expand to a 3-5-5 format with the semifinals and Finals extended to a best-of-five.
Cathy Engelbert has been much beleaguered this season, but her “State of the WNBA” address that she gave prior to Game 1 of the Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty was certainly a high point in her commissionership.
Engelbert, who has been at the W’s top position since 2019, announced at Barclays Center last night two massive changes to the playoff format. The first would be that the Finals would extend from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven.
Starting next year with the 2025 WNBA season, the WNBA Finals presented by YouTube TV will be a best-of-seven format, replacing the current best-of-five format. The Finals will take on a 2-2-1-1-1 structure, in which the team with the higher seed will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, and its opponent will host Games 3, 4 and 6. This will give our fans a championship series format that they are accustomed to seeing in other sports.”
–Cathy Engelbert, WNBA commissioner
Not to center ourselves too much in the seven games discourse, but we at Beyond The W have been pushing the idea of a seven-game Finals for a few years now. We wrote an article during the 2022 playoffs mentioning if 3-5-7 was the way to go. The 2022 season was the first year that the sudden death single-elimination structure for the first round was replaced by the current best-of-three first round series.
We had an inkling that when 3-5-5 was announced that it was a precursor to 3-5-7. Our premonitions have proven to be correct.
It is also fitting that the WNBA would announce an expansion of the Finals right around the time that new teams are entering the W. The 2025 season will be the first year of the expansion Golden State Valkyries. The 2026 season will see Toronto and Portland enter the fray and there will likely be one more expansion franchise join the W prior to 2028.
It is also fitting that the WNBA would announce an expansion of the Finals prior to the WNBA’s new media deals taking place. Beginning in 2026, NBC/Peacock as well as Amazon Prime will assume rights to WNBA broadcasts. Even though that contract was NBA-negotiated, one interesting factoid of the new deal will be the rotation of the Finals between ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime.
The plan is for NBC & Peacock to air the Finals in 2026, 2030 and 2034. Amazon will have the WNBA’s flagship championship series in 2028, 2032 and 2036 with Disney/ESPN/ABC airing the Finals in all odd-numbered years under the new rights deal.
In addition to an updated Finals format, Engelbert also unveiled that the first round of the playoffs will switch from 2-1 to 1-1-1 – meaning every playoff team is guaranteed to host at least one home game.
We have contemplated both these changes since the pandemic. We would have done it in the current year, but with the Olympic break this year, it wasn’t possible. But now that we have (chartered flights) throughout the season and playoffs, it’s feasible.
–Cathy Engelbert, WNBA commissioner
Engelbert mentioning that the WNBA has been considering both changes since the pandemic is key. Because there will be a certain section of WNBA fans that would have believed the only reason why the change was made was because of the result of one of the four playoff series from this year.
That was the result of the Connecticut Sun-Indiana Fever series. The Sun swept the Fever denying a Game 3 which would have been held back in Indianapolis. In fact, there was even an Indianapolis Star article detailing how the Indy economy suffered because the Caitlin Clark-Aliyah Boston-Kelsey Mitchell led Fever did not have a chance to stage a postseason contest at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The same Gainbridge Fieldhouse where WNBA All-Star weekend is slated to take place next year.
Along with those updates to the schedule, Engelbert also announced that the 2025 season will be 44 games long as opposed to 40. With one more team entering the league and no Olympics or FIBA World Cup occurring in 2025, the WNBA is all clear for next year.
Honestly, the league’s growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball made this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the Finals and provide fans more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level.
–Cathy Engelbert, WNBA commissioner
