Philadelphia is finally getting a WNBA team, but Penn already had ties to the city’s last professional women’s basketball team.
By Conor Smith 07/10/25 10:56pm
04-11-23-big-5-classic-announcement-anna-vazhaeparambil
The WNBA is coming to Philadelphia, and the Penn women's basketball team is in a prime position to benefit from the increased interests in women's sports. Credit: Anna Vazhaeparambil
In case you missed it: Professional women’s basketball is coming to Philadelphia.
Last week, the Women’s National Basketball Association officially awarded Philadelphia an expansion team set to tip off in 2030. The team will be owned and operated by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which is managed by 1986 Wharton graduate and sports businessman Josh Harris.
Harris, who wrestled for the Quakers, is also a managing partner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. His fourth professional team will share a new arena, set to be completed by 2031, with the 76ers and the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
“Philadelphia is one of the most storied basketball cites in the world and our region is home to some of the best women’s players and coaches to ever grace the hardwood,” Harris said in a statement. “It’s only right that this city gets the WNBA franchise it deserves, and we’re humbled to help usher in a new era of Philadelphia basketball.”
He is not alone in his excitement.
“I think it’s awesome,” Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “When you have the market that we have and sports are so important in the city, I think it was just time to get a professional women’s team. I know [Philadelphia] had a women’s team back in the ‘90s. Times have changed so much that I know the city will support the team, and I’m just ecstatic.”
As McLaughlin noted, the still-unnamed Philadelphia WNBA team will not be the city’s first major professional women’s basketball team. The Philadelphia Rage played in the American Basketball League for one season, from 1997 to 1998, after moving from Richmond, Va. Notably, the team boasted Philadelphia native and current South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley at point guard.
The Rage split home games between the Apollo at Temple, St. Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, and the Palestra. “This place kind of shakes,” Rage coach Lisa Boyer said of the Palestra in a 1997 interview with the DP. “It didn’t shake in Richmond.”
At the time, the DP editorial board proclaimed that “women’s hoops will be the rage” at the Palestra. McLaughlin is hoping the student journalists were thirty years too early.
“They’re gonna need a place to practice, right?” McLaughlin joked, referring to the new WNBA team.
He added, “I’m thinking, not only in the Big Five, but particularly Penn — how can we partner with them? Josh Harris is a Penn grad, I’m sure his team is filled with Penn alum. How can we partner with them? How can we enhance our program and our visibility, right? That’s something I’m really interested to do.”
Harris has been involved with his alma mater since graduating. In 2018, he donated $1 million to Penn wrestling, crediting the program for teaching him “hard work, grit and tenacity.” Then, in 2022, Penn Medicine became the official healthcare partner of the Harris-owned 76ers. The partnership has made an impact in the Philadelphia community, resulting in two refurbished community basketball courts and donations to local anti-violence organizations.
Even if a partnership does not materialize, McLaughlin and Penn women’s basketball are looking forward to a professional team joining the Big 5 teams that have long dominated the women’s basketball scene in the city.
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