WNBA growth bid coming to new metropolis [EXCLUSIVE]

Fran Harris is aware of the town of Austin fairly nicely. It’s the place she’s spent most of her grownup life, and the place she gained an NCAA championship as a basketball star on the College of Texas.

Now, the adorned athlete and entrepreneur hopes that the up-and-coming Texan metropolis will function the house of the following WNBA growth franchise.

“Austin has a famous and lengthy appreciation for ladies in sports activities,” Corridor informed SB Nation in an unique interview. “We’ve all the time been thought leaders in terms of simply supporting ladies’s sports activities.”

So, Harris has spent the final a number of years rallying the group, and making ready for a WNBA growth bid in Austin. That bid is underway, and in flip, Austin has emerged as certainly one of greater than a dozen cities in rivalry for WNBA growth.

“Once I determined to pursue growth, the very first thing I believed was, ‘I obtained to get my metropolis prepared,’ Harris mentioned. “I didn’t assume, ‘Hey, let me name Cathy [Engelbert]’… I truly was like, I gotta get Austin prepared. I’ve to see if Austin is as enthusiastic about this as I’m.”

As soon as she obtained into the group, she preferred what she realized. There was vitality, and there was enthusiasm. Austin solely has one skilled sports activities staff — Austin FC, skilled males’s soccer membership — so a WNBA staff wouldn’t need to compete with many different professional sports activities groups. Austin additionally boasts a number of potential venues for brand new arenas.

And, she recognized the identical vitality within the metropolis that she remembered from her taking part in days, when 8,000 to 10,000 followers inundated the stands all through the Eighties to look at College of Texas ladies’s basketball video games.

So, she opted to proceed with the bid, assured that Austin will prioritize the franchise, one thing that hasn’t all the time been the case within the WNBA.

“I feel we’re seeing in a number of the cities now — I don’t wish to name any names, however most individuals know some cities are getting displaced, WNBA groups are getting displaced or having to play someplace else, and and that’s one thing that the league needs to keep away from,” mentioned Harris.

What makes Fran Harris a singular match for WNBA possession

Fran Harris has an uncommon resume, and loads of first-hand expertise with the WNBA. She’s loved a adorned profession as each a basketball participant and a profitable entrepreneur, a mixture that would put her in unique firm for franchise possession.

Harris famously led the College of Texas at Austin to an NCAA championship in 1986. That season — the primary undefeated season in ladies’s NCAA basketball historical past — she averaged 13.8 factors per recreation.

She briefly headed abroad on the conclusion of her collegiate profession, taking part in in Italy and Switzerland. Then, she returned to basketball for the launch of the WNBA, serving as one of many the inaugural members of the 1997 Houston Comets that gained the league’s first-ever championship.

Harris believes her expertise as a former participant places her in a singular place to be an efficient proprietor.

“I’ve lived this,” she mentioned.

Since retiring from the WNBA, Harris has served as a TV broadcaster, hosted a TV present that redesigns the inside of individuals’s houses, produced a health present, and based a women-focused electrolye drink, amongst varied different pursuits throughout sports activities and leisure. She’s referred to as Dallas Wings video games for years — together with this previous WNBA season.

Picture by Bryan Bedder/Sportico by way of Getty Pictures

“This season was magical for a lot of causes,” mentioned Harris. “I really feel blessed to be right here, to bear witness, and to completely have a good time the expansion of our recreation. It’s a brilliant particular time in our sport’s evolution.”

Harris is usually reminded of how distinctive her first-hand expertise with ladies’s basketball and the WNBA is when speaking to buyers. There’s dozens of high-profile people within the combine for WNBA possession, however few have the direct information and first-hand experiences Harris has.

“Once I’m in dialog about why Austin, and why me main these efforts, it does come up,” she mentioned. “As a result of I do assume there’s one thing to be mentioned for individuals who personal sports activities groups, who’ve some huge cash, however could not have lots of area information about what the gamers are going by way of, what they need, what the gamers count on, what followers need, what followers love — all of these issues.”

And, along with her tenure as a basketball participant, Harris is assured that her expertise in advertising will assist be certain that a WNBA staff in Austin succeeds past the preliminary pleasure and buzz round it.

She attributes a dip in pleasure surrounding the WNBA within the 2000s to a scarcity of promoting, pointing to the truth that in its early years, the league didn’t have a advertising division.

“To be able to market your product, it’s a must to know what your product is,” Harris mentioned. “You need to know who your core viewers is, and it’s a must to speak to them. And that’s it. The league was not doing an excellent job of promoting what it had.”

However, Harris has had an enormously profitable profession in advertising. She’s appeared on Shark Tank. She’s efficiently pitched a myriad of tv exhibits and merchandise.

Now, she hopes to leverage that numerous background to make sure the success of a potential WNBA franchise.

“I’m an entrepreneur — I began my first enterprise once I was 9 years previous,” Harris mentioned. “And once more, I’m not shy about spreading the gospel of no matter I’m doing. That’s the way in which we’re going to strategy it in Austin.”

Different potential cities for WNBA growth

Harris is hopeful that Austin can separate itself from the pack.

However, she’s additionally conscious that the sixteenth WNBA bid is ready as much as be extremely aggressive.

The WNBA was comprised 12 groups within the 2024 season, and is slated for 3 extra to hitch over the following two seasons: the Golden State Valkyries in 2025 and groups in Toronto and Portland in 2026. The league is vying for a sixteenth staff to even issues out by 2027, and there are reportedly already greater than a dozen suitors, together with in Miami, Milwaukee, Denver, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Philadelphia, amongst others.

Hornets participant Grant Williams has mentioned desirous to convey a staff to Charlotte, Celtics star Jayson Tatum has been linked to a possible staff in St. Louis, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is hoping to convey a staff to Kansas Metropolis. These are only a few high-profile athletes linked to potential WNBA growth cities.

And, whereas it’s actually potential that the league will broaden past 16 groups sooner or later — for now, it seems that issues will cap off at 16 groups.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said on quite a few events that the objective could be so as to add a sixteenth staff by 2026 or 2027, although nothing is assured at this level. There’s presently no timeline for the ultimate bid.

Fran Harris is hoping that the staff shall be in Austin. And, she’s assured that she is going to have the ability to assist domesticate an unwavering fanbase within the metropolis she’s lengthy referred to as residence.

“My objective for the Austin franchise is to create religious followers… followers that really feel like they’re a part of the material of what we’re constructing on this group, followers that really feel like if I gotta go to church and there’s a recreation on Sunday, I don’t know if I’m going to church,” Harris mentioned. “These are the followers I need.”