Rocket Arena is going to be active year-round thanks to Cleveland winning a WNBA women’s basketball pro franchise. It might even help Downtown Cleveland businesses offset some of the loss of the Cleveland Browns leaving downtown for suburban Brook Park (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
WNBA attendance may help offset Browns’ loss
Starting in May 2028, Cleveland’s new Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team will begin playing in Downtown Cleveland at Rocket Arena. The expansion team will play half of its 44-game schedule at home and, if attendance is at least near the league-wide average, will help soften the impact of the Cleveland Browns football team moving from downtown to suburban Brook Park the following year.
According to wire reports, Cleveland is one of three cities — Detroit and Philadelphia being the other two — that won expansion WNBA franchises after ownership groups in each city paid a franchise fee of $250 million. That’s a record high fee for the WNBA.
It’s also five times more than the $50 million that Golden State Valkyries and Toronto Tempo paid just two years ago. The Valkyries began play this year. The Tempo and an as-yet unnamed Portland team that paid a $75 million fee are set to join in 2026, bringing the league to 15 teams.
Cleveland’s will be the 16th. Billionaire Dan Gilbert and his Rock Entertainment Group will be the majority owner of Cleveland’s WNBA team. Cities that fell short in their WNBA bids were St. Louis, Kansas City, Austin, Nashville, Houston, Miami, Denver and Charlotte.
“This is more than basketball,” said Gilbert on the social media platform X. “It’s an exciting new chapter in women’s sports and a win for our city, for fans, and for the next generation of athletes and leaders. Let’s go, Cleveland!”
Cleveland Clinic Courts off Brecksville Road in suburban Independence will be vacated by the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers in 2027. It reportedly will become the practice facility for the WNBA’s new Cleveland team in 2028 (Bing).
The name of the Cleveland team is likely to be the Rockers, but isn’t set in stone yet. The Rockers was the name of the WNBA team that used to play here. It was one of eight inaugural WNBA teams that began play in 1997. The others were located in Charlotte, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah. The WNBA played a 28-game season in its first year.
The Cleveland Rockers averaged 10,350 fans per game in 1998 but fell to 7,400 in 2003. Owner Gordon Gund, who also owned the NBA franchise Cleveland Cavaliers back then, lost money and folded the team.
If Cleveland’s new WNBA team musters per-game attendance like what the old team did in its final year, at 22 home games that’s 162,800 fans per season. If it achieves its 1998 peak, that’s 227,700 new fans coming to Rocket Arena downtown.
By comparison, the Browns last year drew 541,808 fans during eight regular-season home games. The Browns also claimed they sold all tickets to the 67,431-seat Huntington Bank Field for two preseason games, adding another 134,862 fans. But large swaths of empty seat belied those preseason attendance figures.
Cleveland’s new WNBA team will practice at the Cavaliers’ current Cleveland Clinic Courts practice facility in suburban Independence. The Cavaliers will vacate that facility in 2027 when its offices and training center moves downtown to the new Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center as part of the riverfront development led by Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate.
Recently called Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the 19,432-seat venue now called Rocket Arena will host the home games of the city’s new WNBA franchise (NEOtrans).
Things have been looking up for the WNBA lately after some down years. Overall attendance for the WNBA faded in the 2000s and 2010s, leveling off in the 7,400s before dipping to 6,535 in 2019, just before the pandemic. After the economic shutdown, attendance began to rise again.
But nothing aided the WNBA more than its incoming 2024 rookie class, led by number one draft pick Caitlin Clark. Her positive impact on the league was called by some as “Clarkonomics.” Last year, average attendance jumped to 9,807 fans per game although it has settled back to 9,311 so far this season.
The 2025 WNBA season began May 16 and will conclude on Sept. 11. It fills in the void when the NBA isn’t playing unless an NBA team goes deep into the playoffs. The 82-game NBA regular season starts in late October and ends in mid-April.
That also coincides with the America Hockey League (AHL) Cleveland Monsters’ 72-game season. The Monsters averaged 11,438 fans per home game last season, highest in the minor-league AHL for three consecutive years.
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