It’s been nearly 75 years since Iowa had a professional basketball team, and the time is better than ever for an expansion.
The Waterloo Hawks were Iowa’s first and only major professional sports team. As part of the NBA’s inaugural 1949-50 season, the team went 19-43 and finished fifth in the Western Division. The Hawks were one of six teams cut after that season.
If there’s any hope of Iowa gaining a professional basketball team, it’s with the WNBA. The league currently holds 12 franchises and will add two more — Golden State and Toronto — in the next
two years.
Since the Waterloo Hawks ceased operations in 1950, Iowa sports fans have rallied around its two Division I athletic teams: the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones. Both universities have spent decades drawing some of the top high school athletes, especially for basketball.
Hawkeye fans were blessed to watch Caitlin Clark don the black and gold for the past four years. She entered Iowa City as a five-star prospect from West Des Moines and left as arguably the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time.
Now a member of the Indiana Fever, Clark’s fanbase is fueling record-setting ticket sales.
The Fever sold out their season tickets for the first time in franchise history just hours after selecting the superstar point guard first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft. The average distance from Indianapolis for Fever season ticket holders was reported to be 314 miles, with Iowa City being around 365 miles from Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
As of Aug. 20, Indiana leads the league in average and total attendance numbers across the board by a wide margin.
This isn’t the first time Iowa fans have helped break records relating to women’s basketball.
During Clark’s final season last year, the Hawkeyes hosted 55,646 fans inside Kinnick Stadium as part of Crossover at Kinnick, sold out all but two home games, and tallied record-setting NCAA viewership numbers during Iowa’s final three tournament contests, including the national championship game against South Carolina.
In March 2023, Clark described how much Iowans love women’s basketball, and she said the Hawkeyes are their “pro sports team.” She believes a WNBA franchise would thrive in Iowa because of the
sport’s popularity.
Former Hawkeye and current Las Vegas Aces center Megan Gustafson recently advocated for a potential Iowa-WNBA expansion. In an interview with KGAN sports reporter Owen Siebring, Gustafson discussed the idea of holding an exhibition match between the Fever and Aces at Carver-Hawkeye Arena — a game that would feature herself, Clark, and former Iowa guard Kate Martin, who plays with Gustafson on the Aces.
As of right now, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is “pretty confident the league will expand to 16 teams by 2028.” Philadelphia, Portland, Denver, Nashville, and South Florida are among the possible locations for potential expansion franchises.
Now, it’s understandable the league will likely expand to larger markets with established fanbases. But if an expansion team were to hit somewhere in Iowa, a state with a strong women’s basketball reputation and virtually no competition, then there’s great reason to believe a small market state will soon be in the mix for a WNBA franchise.