History
The National Basketball Association announced on April 24, 1996, that the Women's NBA would begin play in June of 1997. As with the rival American Basketball League, the major impetus behind the move was the U. S. women's dream team that was expected to draw a lot of attention at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
There were eight teams in the WNBA's first season: The Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets and New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference and the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz in the Western Conference.
By playing in the summer, the WNBA avoided direct confrontation with its NBA parent. That allowed the league to play in the same large arenas used by NBA teams and it opened the way for games to be televised by NBC, which held rights to NBA games. ESPN and Lifetime also televised WNBA games.
Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo were the first players to sign with the league, in October of 1996. They were soon joined by three other members of the Olympic Gold Medal team, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Lisa Leslie, and Cynthia Cooper.
To ensure balance, 16 players were assigned to teams and a draft was then held in February of 1997 to fill out the rosters.
The New York Liberty beat the Los Angeles Sparks, 67-57, in the WNBA's first game on June 21, 1997, before a crowd of 14,284 in the Great Western Forum. Attendance averaged 9,669 in the league's first season.
The Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics joined the WNBA in 1998, when average attendance rose to 10,869. The league added two more teams, the Minnesota Lynx and Orlando Miracle, in 1999, and four more, the Indiana Fever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire, and Seattle Storm, in 2000.
At the end of its first season, the WNBA had a very simple playoff structure. The two division champions and two wildcard teams went into the playoffs and there were single games in both the semi-finals and the final. In 1998, the league went to best-of-three playoffs.
When the WNBA expanded to 16 teams in 2000, the playoffs were also expanded to include the four top teams from each division, with best-of-three series throughout.
Before the 2003 season, the league dropped its requirement that teams had to be played in NBA cities under the auspices of an NBA team. The Orlando, Miami, Portland and Utah NBA franchises then dropped ownership of their WNBA teams.
The Orlando Miracle became the Connecticut Sun, owned by the Mohegan Sun Casino and playing at the casino's arena. The Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio and became known as the Silver Stars. The Portland and Miami franchises folded, bringing the WNBA down to 14 teams for the season.