The 30th season of WNBA basketball tips off on Friday night, with 15 teams duking it out across the U.S. and (now) Canada, with two new clubs joining the fray along with the 13 from last year.
To get a sense of where fans from those 15 clubs stand, excitement-wise, RotoWire.com created an Excitement Index that ranked all 15 teams across a variety of subjects.
Methodology:
The 2026 WNBA season may be the most newsworthy in league history. Two new franchises (Toronto Tempo, Portland Fire) push the league to 15 teams. A new CBA reset salaries and triggered the largest free-agent class ever. Caitlin Clark is back. A'ja Wilson signed the briefly-largest contract in WNBA history. The Connecticut Sun are playing their final season before relocating to Houston. All 216 nationally televised games -- also a record.
So which fanbases have the most to be excited about? The RotoWire WNBA 2026 Excitement Index ranks all 15 teams across five weighted factors to find out. Each team scored 0–100 across five factors: Star Power (25%), Title Contention (25%), Offseason Buzz (20%), Storyline Intrigue (15%), and National TV Spotlight (15%).
Which WNBA Fanbases Have The Most Reason For Excitement?
Despite winning the franchise's third WNBA championship in four seasons last fall, fans of the 
Las Vegas Aces are not the most exciting club in the 15-team league this season.
That's because head coach Becky Hammon and company scored the third-highest total across the WNBA, with 83.5 points, finishing behind the 2024 WNBA-champion New York Liberty (who had a league-high 89.6 points) and Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever, who had 88.6 points across our five metrics.
As you might expect, our 2026 WNBA season excitement index falls mostly in line with 2026 WNBA championship odds, with oddsmakers from BetMGM giving the Liberty the top spot, at +250, followed by A'Ja Wilson and the Aces (+400) and Clark's Fever squad, at +425.
Much of the reason for excitement in the Big Apple, besides the Liberty's top-line title odds, is the return of veterans like Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu, along with the free agent addition of forward Satou Sabally, building a top-tier lineup from the backcourt through the frontcourt inside Barclays Center this season.
For Indiana, getting Clark back and healthy is enough of a reason to spark joy in the hearts and minds of fans, with the former No. 1 pick out of Iowa missing 27 games with a groin injury.
This year, Clark's return, along with the Fever's free agent signing of veteran forward Monique Billings and the 'supermax' extension signed by fellow top pick Aliyah Boston provides ample reason for optimism in Indiana, helping explain the Fever's No. 2 spot on our list.
For Vegas, excitement starts and ends with the otherworldly talents that Wilson and her four WNBA MVPs provides on a game-by-game basis, with the 29-year-old center also taking home her third WNBA Defensive Player of the Year honor in 2025.
Also see: WNBA Expansion: Can Toronto or Portland Match Golden State's Playoff Feat?
Which WNBA Fanbases Have Less Reason For Hope?
While championship contenders like New York, Indiana and Las Vegas are the league's frontrunners, excitement wise, the opposite is true of rebuilding clubs like the Connecticut Sun, Seattle Storm and Washington Mystics.
The Sun, who are in their last season in the Nutmeg State before moving to Houston in 2027, had the lowest Excitement Index score, at 40.2 points, speaking to the lack of optimism surrounding the club, which hasn't made the playoffs since 2024.
Seattle (46.0 points) has lost in the first round of the postseason in successive seasons, including last year's 23-21 run under head coach Noelle Quinn, who was replaced by Sonia Raman this year.
While the Storm still employ veterans like center Stefanie Dolson and guard Lexie Brown, they enter 2026 with the third-lowest win total over/under on Caesars Sportsbook (behind the expansion Portland Fire and Sun), with Seattle checking in at 14.5, compared with 10.5 for Portland and 12.5 for Connecticut, speaking to oddsmakers' belief that it'll be a long year in the Emerald City for women's hoops fans.
The story in the Nation's Capital is much the same, with the Mystics entering the year with a win total over/under of 17.5 on Fanatics Sportsbook, as Washington looks to return to the postseason for the first time since 2023 this season.
All told, there's ample reason for optimism as the WNBA tips off its 30th season of basketball, though certain cities have better reason to start the year excited than others.
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