During her press conference ahead of Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced major changes to the league's playoff format starting with the 2025 season.
Most notably, the Finals will be a best-of-seven series starting next season, and will have a 2-2-1-1-1 structure. "This will give our fans a championship series format that they are accustomed to seeing in other sports," Engelbert said.
Furthermore, the best-of-three first round will switch from the controversial 2-1 format to a 1-1-1 format. That ensures that each team that makes the playoffs hosts at least one game, preventing a scenario in which the lower seed gets a winner-take-all Game 3 at home.
"We have contemplated both these changes since the pandemic, and we would have done it in the current year, but with the Olympic break this year it wasn't possible," Engelbert added. "Now that we have charter [flights] throughout the season and playoffs, it's feasible."
In addition, Engelbert confirmed the league will indeed increase the regular season to a record 44 games, something she first discussed in July during All-Star Weekend.
"The league's growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball wil make this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the Finals and provide fans more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level," Engelbert said.
The WNBA has a history of altering its playoff format on a fairly regular basis, and this is the latest adaptation.
In the league's inagural 1997 season, there were just two playoff rounds, and both the semifinals and Finals were one-game events. Best-of-three series were introduced for the semifinals and Finals in 1998, and best-of-five series first came into use in 2005. That was initially just for the Finals, however, and the semifinals were not expanded to best-of-five until 2016.