Fran Harris wants the WNBA to consider Austin for expansion
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Fran Harris at Sportico's Invest in Sports in New York last week. Photo: Bryan Bedder/Sportico via Getty Images
Former Texas Longhorns forward Fran Harris, who led the women's basketball team to its first and only national championship in 1986, is gunning for Austin to be a future WNBA expansion site.
Why it matters: Austin has long been a college football town, but there are growing signs that the area is hungry for professional sports.
Driving the news: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said she wants to continue adding more teams to the league, and Austin is among a handful of cities under consideration.
- The Bay Area's Golden State Valkyries are slated to join the 12-team league next year, and teams in Toronto and Portland are on deck in 2026.
- A 16th team is expected to be selected by 2027, and Austin is one of at least 15 other cities under consideration.
Zoom in: Harris has spent the past year raising capital and working on Austin's submission packet to position the city as the WNBA's next team venue.
- Portland, the latest city selected for the WNBA, reportedly paid an expansion fee of $125 million.
- Team No. 16 could be looking at a price tag of up to $200 million, according to Harris, who is working to find investors to foot the bill.
What they're saying: "I think Austin checks every single box — location, corporate partners, beautiful arena — and best of all, a community that has demonstrated support for women's basketball," Harris said in a news release. "The W has arrived and today it's worth every penny."
Catch up quick: Harris, a Dallas native, was named Southwest Conference Player of the Year in the 1984-85 season and was team MVP of the 1985-86 squad, which became the first women's college basketball team to go undefeated and win the NCAA title.
- Harris later played on the WNBA's first championship team with the Houston Comets in 1997 and the Utah Starzz in 1998.
- She was inducted to the UT Athletics Women's Hall of Honor in 2007 and returned to UT in 2014 as the team's coordinator of community engagement.
The big picture: It's a historic time for viewership and engagement in women's sports, and the star power of athletes like the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark has driven record growth and investment for the league.
- Austin is poised to have a dedicated bar to watch women's sports, and the city also has its own WNBA fan support club, which hosts watch parties.
- Interest in professional sports has boomed locally. Austin FC arrived in 2021 and now has some of the highest salaries in the MLS, along with regularly sold out games at Q2 Stadium.
- The Spurs have continued to expand their Austin footprint with sold out games at the Moody Center.
Reality check: Women's sports still struggle to generate the same revenue and viewership as men's sports.
- The University of Texas men's basketball team drew an average attendance of 10,682 people per game to the Moody Center last season; the women's squad drew an average of 6,803 — despite the women finishing ranked seventh nationally in the AP poll and the men not ranked in the top 25.
- Formula 1's all-women's W Series, which was set to host its final three races of the 2022 season at Austin's Circuit of the Americas, was canceled due to financial issues and was later liquidated.
What's next: No date has been announced for the WNBA's selection of the 16th team.