[Source: Reuters]

The WNBA Finals will expand to a best-of-seven series for the first time in 2025, the league announced ahead of Game 1 of the 2024 championship series between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx.

The league has never seen a best-of-seven playoff series, but the 2025 Finals will mark the first and utilize a 2-2-1-1-1 format — meaning the higher seed will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 and the lower seed will host Games 3, 4 and 6.

Among other changes on the way for the burgeoning league, the regular season will grow from 40 to 44 games for each team as the expansion Golden State Valkyries begin play.

“We are seeing an incredible demand for WNBA basketball, as reflected in the number of cities pursuing expansion franchises, fans attending games and engaging with our social and digital platforms in record fashion, and game broadcasts and streams being consumed like never before,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.

“The incredible demand for WNBA basketball makes this the ideal time to increase the regular season to 44 games per team and expand the (Finals) to a best-of-seven series.

“These changes will create more opportunities to watch the best players in the world compete at the highest level and give our fans a championship series format that they are accustomed to seeing in other sports.”

The league is also tweaking the format of the best-of-three first round of the playoffs. Rather than the higher seed hosting Games 1 and 2, it will be the home team for Games 1 and 3, with the lower seed getting a chance to host Game 2.

“The new 1-1-1 structure for the First Round of the WNBA Playoffs presented by Google will guarantee a home game for both teams in a series, which was a priority based on discussions with the WNBA’s team presidents, head coaches, general managers and the Competition Committee,” head of league operations Bethany Donaphin said.

The league’s surge in popularity, fueled in large part by Fever phenom Caitlin Clark, helped it land a new media rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon worth $2.2 billion over 11 years.

Under the new deal, the semifinals and the WNBA Finals will rotate among Disney, NBC and Prime Video.