Earlier this week news broke that the WNBA is expanding to Cleveland in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030, bringing the league to 18 teams.
When asked about the change, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham didn't exactly hold back on the chosen locations. She would have rather seen a number of other cities like Miami or Kansas City get a team instead.
"You want to listen to your players, too. Like where do they want to play?" she said. "Where are they going to get excited to play and draw fans? I think Miami would have been a great one. Nashville is an amazing city. Kansas City, amazing opportunity. There's a huge arena downtown that nobody is using."
"I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast. I think that that's also another thing. It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."
Her comments caught the attention of Detroit Lions offensive lineman Dan Skipper, who didn't take too kindly to her opinion. "You ever been there? Pretty good place to play, well not for you now," he said bluntly.
You ever been there? Pretty good place to play, well not for you now. https://t.co/YJEKazHkJE
— Dan Skipper (@DanSkipper70) July 1, 2025
Earlier on the afternoon of July 1 the city of Detroit clapped back at the Fever fan favorite as well.
"The last time we were home to a WNBA team (Detroit Shock) we ranked top five in attendance for five straight seasons, No. 1 in attendance for three straight seasons and set a single-game attendance record of 22,076 fans at Game 3 of the 2003 WNBA Finals," the City of Detroit account wrote.
Cunningham certainly didn't add any fans in Detroit this week.
Sophie Cunningham Receives Blunt Message From NFL Player first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 2, 2025
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