Written by: Lee Hankinson (cjh012@marietta.edu)
After more than two decades without a WNBA team, professional women’s basketball is returning to Cleveland. The Cleveland Sirens will begin playing in the 2028 WNBA season, bringing the league back to a city that once had one of its original franchises.
The Sirens were awarded to Cleveland in June 2025 as part of the WNBA’s expansion to 18 teams. The franchise is owned by Rock Entertainment Group, the sports and entertainment company led by Dan Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Sirens will play their home games at Rocket Arena, giving Cleveland another professional basketball team under the same sports umbrella.
The team’s arrival also represents a return of something Cleveland has been missing since 2003. The Cleveland Rockers were one of the WNBA’s original eight teams when the league began in 1997. The Rockers played until 2003, when the organization ceased operations after the Gund family decided not to continue operating the franchise.
Instead of bringing back the Rockers name, Cleveland chose to create a new identity. On August 4th, 2026, Rock Entertainment Group officially introduced the Cleveland Sirens, along with the team’s logo and branding. The name was chosen after more than a year of research, including surveys, focus groups and thousands of conversations throughout the region.
The name is closely connected to Cleveland’s most recognizable natural feature, Lake Erie. In Greek mythology, sirens were mythical creatures associated with the sea and a powerful, captivating voice. For Cleveland, the idea represents the pull of Lake Erie and the strength and determination of the city and its people.
“The Cleveland Sirens are sharp, unapologetic, fearless and relentless,” Allison Howard, the team’s president of business operations, said during the unveiling.
The team’s logo and colors continue that connection. The Sirens use shades inspired by Lake Erie, including Sirens Blue and Erie Blue. The logo features a siren holding a basketball beneath the team’s name, with design elements meant to resemble waves and the sound of a siren. The colors also pay tribute to the former Cleveland Rockers, who used blue in their identity.
Although the Sirens will not play their first game until 2028, the organization has already begun to build its fan base. The team says it has held dozens of community events and engaged thousands of girls through basketball camps, clinics, and other programs. The franchise has also attracted thousands of first-season ticket payments as excitement builds toward its first fames.
One of the biggest questions before the 2028 season is simple: Who will actually play for the Sirens?
Because Cleveland is an expansion team, it will not simply start with a completely empty roster and sign whoever it wants. The WNBA has several methods that will help the Sirens build a competitive team, including an expansion draft, the annual WNBA Draft, and free agency.
The expansion draft is designed specifically to help a new team acquire players from existing WNBA franchises. The exact rules for Cleveland’s 2028 expansion draft have not been announced yet, but the 2026 expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo are good examples of how the process can work.
In 2026, each existing team sent a list of players whose rights it controlled. Each team could protect up to five players. Those protected players could not be selected. Everyone else on the team’s list became eligible for the expansion draft. Portland and Toronto then selected players from those unprotected lists.
Cleveland will likely receive similar special roster-building opportunities, although the league could change the format before 2028. The goal is to give the Sirens access to experienced WNBA players instead of forcing an expansion team to rely almost entirely on rookies.
The Sirens will also take part in the WNBA Draft, selecting players coming out of college and other eligible players from around the world.
The WNBA currently holds its draft annually, usually in April. Domestic players must be at least 22 during the draft year and have no remaining college eligibility, while international players must be at least 20.
Since Cleveland is an expansion team, the league can offer additional draft opportunities for an expansion franchise. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement allows the league to add an added choice in each round at once before an expansion team’s first season, with those selections assigned to the new team. That means the Sirens should have an important opportunity to add young talent before their first season.
The third major way Cleveland can build its roster is free agency. Free agents are players whose contracts have ended or who otherwise become eligible to negotiate with teams. Unrestricted free agents can negotiate with any team. Restricted free agents, depending on their circumstances, can negotiate with other teams but their previous team may have the right to match an offer.
For an expansion franchise like Cleveland, free agency could be especially important because it allows the Sirens to target experienced players who can become leaders on a brand-new team.
The Sirens will have to balance all three methods: selecting players in the expansion draft, developing young talent through the WNBA Draft and signing established players through free agency. The combination could allow Cleveland to build a roster capable of competing immediately rather than waiting several seasons to become competitive.
The timing is also favorable for the new franchise. The WNBA is in the middle of its biggest period of expansion in decades, growing to 18 teams with Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia joining the league. The league’s new collective bargaining agreement, which began in 2026 and runs through 2032, also dramatically changes player compensation and the league’s financial structure.
For Cleveland, however, the return of the WNBA is about more than simply adding another professional sports team. It is a chance to reconnect with the history of the Rockers while creating something new. The Sirens have already made it clear that they do not want to simply recreate the past. Instead, they want to build an identity connected to Cleveland, Lake Erie and the growing popularity of women’s sports.
When the Sirens finally take the court at Rocket Arena in 2028, Cleveland will once again hear professional women’s basketball. This time, however, the call will come from a team with a new name, a new identity and a new opportunity to make WNBA history in Northeast Ohio.
Edited by: Rebecca Straits (rjs006@marietta.edu)
