Photo by Tom Pidgeon/Getty Images The WNBA has grown rapidly and announced three new expansion teams this year alone. With the Shock’s championship history, should the league look to Detroit next? The buzzer sounded in Indiana 15 years ago today. The Detroit Shock battled through a tumultuous season as they looked to defend their 2008 title. The next year was anything but ordinary though. Bill Laimbeer announced his resignation as head coach just three games into the season. He handed the keys to top assistant and fellow Pistons great Rick Mahorn, who guided the team through a rough start. The Shock finished above .500 and made the playoffs for the seventh straight season. The goal was to reach the WNBA Finals for the fourth straight year, but the Indiana Fever were in the way. On Sept. 26, 2009, Tamika Catchings celebrated with her Fever teammates as they earned their first Finals appearance, eliminating the Shock in three games. When Detroit’s final shot rimmed out, though, it was the last time the Shock were on the hardwood with a home base in Detroit. A few weeks later, The Associated Press reported that the Shock were moving to Tulsa, Okla., after 12 seasons and three championships in Motown. The league made the move official the next day, bringing Tulsa its first major professional sports team and leaving Detroit in the dust amid attendance struggles, a faltered economy and the death of owner Bill Davidson earlier that year. Laimbeer, who coached the Shock to all three titles, already left for an NBA bench and the Pistons were starting a steady decline, too. Due to a series of unfortunate events, there was little momentum to save the Shock in Detroit. Fast forward to current day, the Shock moved again, this time from Tulsa to Dallas where they are now known as the Dallas Wings. I can’t help but wonder how loved Arike Ogunbowale would be in Detroit, by the way. The Indiana Fever are still kicking and trending upward after two straight years with the No. 1 overall pick, which netted rookie sensation Caitlin Clark and the dominant Aliyah Boston. A pick-and-roll duo you could only dream of. If you zoom out, the WNBA is hitting a supercharged growth period. Not one, not two, but three new expansion teams were announced this year. The Bay got the first expansion bid with the Golden State Valkyries slated to begin play next season. Then came Toronto and most recently, Portland, who was announced as the WNBA’s 15th team just last week. The Toronto and Portland franchises will begin play in 2026. That leaves the league at an odd number of teams and presumedly more growth on the horizon. In advance of the WNBA Draft this past April where Clark was selected No. 1, commissioner Cathy Engelbert told the media that the goal is to have 16 teams by 2028. Who could get the next WNBA expansion franchise? Four new teams in four years seems like a lot, but the league appears poised to manage the extreme growth. Engelbert provided an off the cuff short list comprised of Philadelphia, Denver, Nashville and South Florida. She was clear that these aren’t the only options and the league remains in contact with many cities. I haven’t heard anyone from the league mention Detroit specifically as either an option for expansion or whether any Detroit-based groups are in contact with the league. In late May, Crain’s Detroit Business reported that the Pistons were in conversation with the league to indicate interest and advocate for the WNBA’s potential return to Detroit. It seems that Detroit is amongst the many cities that wants to be a part of the WNBA’s growth. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. Not every city who wants a WNBA team will get one. “We’re talking to a lot of different cities,” Engelbert told reporters in advance of April’s draft. “I think I’ve thrown out names before. It’s complex because you need an arena and a practice facility and player housing and all the things, you need committed long-term ownership groups. The nice thing is we’re getting a lot of calls.” The first thing Detroit needs to work out is where its WNBA team will play. Little Caesars Arena is the first option that jumps out, but I don’t think that’s a given. If Pistons ownership is the group to bring the WNBA back to Detroit, Tom Gores and company would need to lease out the arena for the potential team’s home games. The lease part is doable. The Pistons are already under such an agreement to play at LCA. My concern lies with potential scheduling conflicts that could deprioritize the WNBA. On the bright side, the WNBA season is mostly in the summer, opposite that of the Pistons and Red Wings. Conflicts would still come up, though, whether due to concerts, other events or starts and ends of seasons bleeding into the others. Although things happen, it’s not a great look for a WNBA team to get consistently bumped out of their home building. Conflicting schedules wouldn’t be such a concern if the first iteration of the Shock didn’t already deal with it. The Shock won their third (and final) championship at Eastern Michigan’s Convocation Center because they were bumped from the Palace of Auburn Hills due to a conflict with Disney on Ice. Seriously. Facilities, Facilities, Facilities Another hurdle a Detroit WNBA bid would face is the plan for practice facilities. Would the team share space at the Pistons Performance Center? Although that sounds fine and dandy on first mention, it doesn’t cut it. Current WNBA franchises are building their own, state-of-the-art, facilities. If they’re not, there’s pressure to change that quickly. Last offseason, star players opted to join teams with their own facilities over those without. Nneka Ogwumike left the Los Angeles Sparks, who don’t have their own practice facility, for the Seattle Storm. Seattle opened their new practice facility before this season. Kahleah Copper requested a trade from the Chicago Sky who don’t have their own facility. Copper ended up with the Phoenix Mercury, who opened their team-specific center this year after considerable investment from new owner and Michigan native Mat Ishbia. The Sky realized they had to keep up to compete. They announced plans for a new practice facility which will be ready in 2026. A brand new team will get time, though. In theory, a WNBA bid from Detroit could include plans for a new practice facility by the time the team would play its first game. But, that’s not a given. League trends have shown players want to go where they’re treated as they should be, which must be accounted for by expansion suitors in the bidding process. I get it. I sound pessimistic about a return to Detroit for the WNBA. Detroit doesn’t seem in the league’s cards. For now. Detroit likely won’t be the WNBA’s 16th franchise and hit the floor by 2028. But, what if Engelbert changes her tune this offseason? What if plans change and the league is ready for 18 teams by 2030? Or 20 teams? With just one expansion bid that we know of in the immediate future, cities like Philadelphia, Denver and Nashville appear to have a leg up on Detroit. Pistons ownership, or another Detroit-based ownership group, needs to convince the league otherwise. Until then, all these years later, the clock is still at zero for the Detroit Shock, one of the winningest franchises in WNBA history.