WNBA Playoff Teams Highlight Gaps in League Ownership

The WNBA playoff field is set.

The Seattle Storm clinched the final playoff spot following a win Tuesday night over the Golden State Valkyries. Only one of the four first-round series has been set: the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury vs. No. 5 New York Liberty. The No. 1 Minnesota Lynx are the only other team to lock in their seed.

WNBA Playoff Teams

1. Minnesota Lynx 
2. Atlanta Dream
3. Las Vegas Aces
4. Phoenix Mercury
5. New York Liberty
6. Indiana Fever
7. Golden State Valkyries
8. Seattle Storm

Despite changes in the standings, seven of the eight teams that qualified for the postseason were also in the playoffs last year. The Valkyries were the new addition, and they are the first expansion team to ever make the postseason.

Noticeable Gap

The divide between the best and the worst teams is abundantly clear this season. Despite the WNBA rewarding more than half of its 13 teams a playoff spot, all eight playoff teams will finish above .500 this season for the first time since 2011. The No. 9 Los Angeles Sparks could also finish at .500 with a win on Thursday.

If the Connecticut Sun lose their final game to the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday, then the three worst teams in the league—the Sun, Chicago Sky, and Dallas Wings—will have each lost at least 75% of their games this season.

They happen to be three of the five independent WNBA teams, meaning their ownership does not also own another professional sports team in their city. Only two independent teams qualified for the postseason (Dream, Storm). 

The WNBA is adding five more expansion teams between next year and 2030, and every ownership group has an affiliation with an NBA team. The NBA owns 42% of the WNBA.

The Sun, who missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years, are up for sale, and could be moved out of Uncasville, Conn. Front Office Sports has reported that the WNBA prefers the franchise be moved to Houston under the ownership Tilman Fertitta, who also runs the NBA’s Rockets.