Last week’s 76ers arena proposal from Mayor Cherelle Parker and city officials had an unexpected nugget for women’s sports fans in the area: the Sixers’ goal to bring a WNBA franchise to the city.
That buried nugget on page 66 of the city’s 80-page presentation was huge news for Jennifer Leary, founder and host of Watch Party PHL, and Esther Rosen, who runs the popular ”WNBA Philly” social media accounts, two of the city’s biggest grassroots advocates for acquiring a professional women’s sports franchise (or two).
The news provoked a mix of surprise and excitement, tempered by the realization that this long-wanted dream was being tied to the political third rail of a new stadium project that could adversely affect Center City’s Chinatown community.
“It’s tricky, right. I don’t want to get a team this way, when it’s wrapped up in all this controversy, when so much of the important communities are against the arena. So it’s hard,” Leary said. “On the other hand, we want a WNBA team in the city. So it’s hard to marry the two. Yes, I’m excited about a team. Yes, I’m disappointed about the way it’s coming about.”
The closest Philly currently comes to a major league women’s sports team is the Philadelphia Surge, a women and gender-expansive pro ultimate frisbee team that has played two seasons in the Premier Ultimate League. Efforts have been made to bring a WNBA team to Philly, to no avail — yet.
While both Leary and Rosen were happy to hear some new progress was being made to get a WNBA team in Philly, they both didn’t offer support for the proposed arena. Leary said Watch Party PHL supports the Chinatown residents and their voices being heard.
“My stance is we’re excited for a team here, obviously, but we also support the Chinatown community and we hope that the city will listen to them as this project goes forward — the city, the WNBA, the Sixers, and everyone else involved,” she said.
Rosen said that she has “remained completely neutral … intentionally” on the subject.
“To me, the arena is not my conversation. Whatever happens is gonna happen in that regard,” she said. “I just want to see the team. If that happens in a new arena? Cool. If that happens … on Temple’s campus? Awesome. Wherever it is, I’ll go.”
The Sixers have confirmed that if the WNBA comes to Philadelphia, the team would play in the same arena as the men’s team. The WNBA, which has had a breakthrough season, had an average attendance of 9,807, up a staggering 48% from the previous year, and set a record attendance of 20,711. The proposed Sixers arena will seat 18,500 and is projected to open in 2031, should the approvals to build come this year.
“We share in Mayor Parker’s desire to bring a WNBA franchise to Philadelphia and have been engaged with the league on the process,” the team said in a statement to Billy Penn “Our goal is for our new arena to serve as home to both the 76ers and a WNBA franchise.”
Rosen said that the Sixers tying a WNBA bid to the arena proposal made a lot of sense, given that WNBA has been vocal about wanting to see NBA teams attached to expansion franchises. She was surprised how unexpected and low-key the announcement was, though. Despite being “terminally online,” she said the news broke while she was having dinner with her parents, leading to this post:
Rosen said she wasn’t sure whether being brought into the arena debate would hurt the efforts and support to get a WNBA team.
“At this point — I used to have thoughts and opinions or whatever — I simply don’t know because these kinds of conversations have billions, with a ‘B’, attached to them and that is quite literally above my pay grade,” she said.
Rosen says her accounts — the current following on X is 4,350 — have become a public forum for discourse. She said she’s happy to provide a platform for people to interact, but doesn’t engage with any of the arguments.
“Personally [the Sixers arena is] probably not as terrible as the people who think it’s terrible is, and it’s not as great as the people who think it’s great is,” she said. “I’m just happy that people are engaging and having these civic conversations. I love seeing a civic-minded conversation happening in this little world that I’ve helped to build.”
Rosen wasn’t surprised that the proposition of a women’s basketball team would be pulled into the political issue though.
“In terms of it being dragged into the middle of this conversation, it was quite frankly inevitable, once the Sixers started talking about the arena,” she said. “As much as I would like to say that it’s not a political issue, It is. Women’s sports is political. These athletes exist at the intersection of everything and it is going to be political in some way. Why that has to be represented in a stadium, that’s not necessarily the best place for them to be dragged into the middle of it. Because these athletes are going to show up and ball, no matter where you put them. I think that’s what’s important to focus on. We have the talent, we have the people, we have the community. We just don’t have the team.”
Though not directly connected to the teams and bidding groups trying to get a team in Philly, both Rosen and Leary have been focused on the grassroots efforts to show proof that there is an appetite for a WNBA (or NWSL as well, in Watch Party PHL’s case) team in the city, through discourse, statistics, and events.
“We can say all we want that Philly is a sports town and we’re a women’s sports town, [but] before Watch Party Philly, there was really no tangible data of that. Now we have that,” she said.
At its first event, a watch party for this year’s NCAA women’s basketball championship game, Leary says the turnout was around 100 people. She says it grew to around 600 people for the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s gold medal match at the Paris Olympics. While the main focuses are basketball and soccer, watching any women’s sports amongst other women’s sports fans is the goal. The events have also incorporated the U.S. presidential and V.P. debates alongside the games, with a get-out-the-vote dance party planned for Oct. 10.
Leary also pointed out that recognizing and acknowledging who shows up is as important.
“So much of the WNBA and the women’s sports community are people of color and it’s a large diverse group of fans,” she said. “So having to choose between getting our own team here in Philly and kind of still supporting Chinatown residents and the history of our communities, it’s a tough one.”
Much like the chances that the Center City arena will be built, the likelihood of a WNBA team coming to Philadelphia feels as if it is shifting from an “if” to a “when.” Leary said she hopes only that the arrival of a new women’s professional sports team comes with a result that all sides can embrace and accept.
“I am cautiously optimistic as a fan. I want a team here,” Leary said. “I just hope that when that happens that all the affected voices in the community will be considered and will be listened to during that process.”
