“Viewership by fans under 35 increased by 211%, led by a 259% increase by Gen Z and Millennial women,” the WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated while addressing the fans before Game 1 of the Championship Finale on Thursday. Notably, the spike in viewership numbers and ticket sales has prompted Engelbert and her peers to make significant changes in the format for the next season. However, the New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu doesn’t look to one hundred percent agree with them.

On Saturday when she gave her take on the changes advocated by Engelbert. “Yeah I like that. I thought it should always be best of seven. I think that’s going to be great. I didn’t love the 1-1-1… I didn’t love the first round being like that. But I don’t have a say in it. You know, I thought it should be best of five or you know… I don’t know… I feel like the top seed should get more of an advantage than just the first home game. Like you know, it’s either… should be like baseball where they’re all at home, or it should be a best of five and you get two,” Ionescu stated.

Engelbert has assured that the round 1 series, which currently has a 2-1 format, will switch to 1-1-1 so that even the lower-seeded teams get to host a home game. This could especially have made a difference this season as Indiana was the bottom-seeded team but had a lot of fan following due to Caitlin Clark. Their hosting a home game would have meant a jam-packed arena. But Ionescu doesn’t look pleased with it.

According to her, much like baseball’s Wild Card Series, the higher-seeded team should host all three games or the league should switch to the best-of-five format with the top-seeded team getting a home advantage with 2-2-1. But she also did take into account the perspective of the bottom-seeded team.

“You should get really rewarded for being a top seed and I do agree that a bottom seed should have a home game. Like I think if you make the playoffs, you should be able to go in front of your home crowd, and kind of you know be rewarded with the ability to play a playoff game at home. But I personally thought there should be a little bit more of advantage if you’re a top seed and make it the best of five. You know 5-7-7 … 5-5-7. But I’m excited. It means more basketball, more playoffs, and more teams are going to be able to potentially get upset in a series,” Ionescu concluded.

As per Engelbert’s announcement, the 2025 W Finals will be a best-of-seven series like the NBA instead of being a best of 5. The reason behind it has been the rising viewership and fan support in the W. According to the Commissioner, the format will follow a 2-2-1-1-1 tally with the higher-seeded team getting to host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7, which means four games, as compared to the lower-seeded team getting 3 games. However, these are not the only changes to be implemented by the W.

Cathy Engelbert reveals more major changes in the W’s format

The league will be expanding to 13 teams the next season with the Golden State Valkyries joining their franchise base. Thus, the number of regular season games played by each team will increase to 44 compared to this year’s 40. “We all want to grow the game globally … which is why most of what we’re doing is expanding our season on the backend,” Engelbert added.

Plus, by 2026, even Toronto and Portland teams will join the league which means there will be 15 teams. Engelbert wants to increase the team number to 16 and divulges that she wants it done before 2028. As for this year, the new franchise Valkyries will have the fifth pick in each of the three rounds of the draft.

However, as for now, Ionescu doesn’t look very pleased with the idea since she wants the top-seeded team to have more advantage over other teams, and play more games at home. Certainly, the New York Liberty team would want that. Perhaps, Engelbert might come up with an update in the future that sits right with the Liberty star.