Basketball fans are flocking to the WNBA, packing arenas and setting viewership records this year following the additions of two of the sport’s brightest new stars, Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese.
The soaring popularity of the 12-team league is set to grow as the league expands to San Francisco in 2025 and Portland, Ore., and Toronto in 2026 and another market by 2028, when the WNBA plans to have 16 teams.
Could Jacksonville be in the mix to compete for that 16th market?
According to a recent report by Sports Business Journal, former WNBA president and Jacksonville Beach resident Donna Orender wants to bring the women’s professional basketball league to Jacksonville and is part of an investment group exploring that opportunity.
“I definitely have an active interest in pursuing a team,” Orender told the national weekly sports industry trade magazine. “I would love it. Knowing markets the way I do — I’ve traveled all around the country trying to sell teams, move teams, etc. — I think Jacksonville, Fla. measures up as well, if not better than most.”
Orender and her group have yet to submit a bid to become an expansion franchise. And other Florida cities, too, are expected to compete for the franchise.
But she thinks Jacksonville — which she says was the 10th-largest WNBA viewing market when she was the league’s president from 2005-2010 — would make a great candidate.
“What do you want in a city? Obviously, there’s so many different variables,” she told Sports Business Journal. “You want a great ownership group, committed investment dollars for the long run. You want a fantastic arena with a great arena deal that allows your team to be successful. You want a great fan base. Jacksonville … is a city that will stand up and be counted for the teams that they believe in.”
Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena ‘right size’ for WNBA franchise
And VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena would make an ideal home for a Jacksonville team, Orender said.
“It’s a major league arena, it’s the right size. You can fill it,” she told the magazine.
With a basketball seating configuration of 14,091 seats, the arena is a tested basketball venue, having hosted early-round games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament four times, in 2006, 2010, 2015 and 2019.
By comparison, Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home to the Indiana Fever, seats 17,274; and Paradise, Nevada’s Michelob Ultra Arena, home to the Las Vegas Aces, seats 12,000.
This year, WNBA game attendance reached its highest level in 22 years, up almost 50% from just a year ago, CNBC reported. And the league’s games attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across ABC, ESPN, CBS and others, the business network reported.
Who is Donna Orender, the former WNBA exec considering a bid to bring expansion franchise to Jacksonville?
Orender, a member of the 1975 Queens College basketball team, played in the first women’s game ever played at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden on Feb. 22, 1975, when her team took the court against Immaculata College. She was also one of the charter members of the Women’s Pro Basketball League, the first for women.
After 17 years as a senior executive with the PGA Tour, Orender served six years as president of the WNBA. She now serves as CEO of Orender Unlimited, her consulting and advisory firm based in Jacksonville Beach.
“I think everybody understands my long-held, inborn passion for women’s basketball, and, of course, the league,” Orender told Sports Business Journal. “It’s something that is really personal to me, and so — certainly even before the Caitlin Clark era — I have been looking at opportunities.”
What other cities are competing for WNBA expansion franchise team?
In addition to interest from multiple Florida groups, Nashville, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Austin, Kansas City, Houston, Charlotte, Denver and Cleveland are expected to compete for the WNBA expansion franchise, which could attract bids as high as $250 million, the magazine reported.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Donna Orender exploring Jacksonville WNBA expansion franchise bid
