WNBA unveils logo, basketball and uniforms as part of ‘Count It’ campaign to celebrate 25th anniversary season

The WNBA announced on Monday that it will introduce a logo, basketball and uniforms as part of a “Count It” campaign to celebrate the 25th anniversary season in 2021.

The league released photos of the new logo and ball on Monday, but said details on the uniforms are yet to come.

“We want to count all the league’s achievements, from a gaming perspective as well as culture and society,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN on the “Count It” theme. “The reason we decided to use numbers in the logo was to convey the idea of, ‘Keep count, because there’s a lot more to come out of the WNBA.’

“Hopefully we will have a lot of fan engagement around all of these elements, along with naming our 25 Greatest Players and 25 Best Moments. And our Social Justice Council has continued to meet to continue doing important work in their communities.”

Social justice was a major focus of the WNBA last season in the bubble in Bradenton, Florida, where the league had a regular season of 22 games with traditional playoffs won by Seattle. The WNBA returns to its home markets this season. Engelbert said the league hopes to announce its schedule in the coming weeks. Prior to last year’s pandemic-shortened schedule, the WNBA had planned a 36-game season.

“It’s a bit of a Rubik’s Cube, so it’s taking a little longer than usual,” Engelbert said of working through the television and the arena’s availability for this year’s schedule. “We’ll be following anywhere from 30 to 36 games. It’s also a challenge because of the Olympic break, and we want to leave some room, even if we have to reschedule due to COVID.”

Engelbert said whether fans will be admitted to WNBA games this season will be announced at a later date. Much of the test and social distance protocol with players, coaches and officials that the league successfully passed last season will remain in individual markets this season. That will pose its own challenges, instead of everyone being in the same bubble.

“It is clear that our teams have already spoken to the local health authorities,” said Engelbert. “Hopefully some markets will allow fans in, usually in a limited way at first. Maybe after the Olympic break we will move to a different place as we get more vaccinated population and less spread of the virus through the community.

“If you look at the NBA, it started in December with fans in six markets and now they have fans in 17 markets. We study models and leverage the NBA experience.”

Engelbert confirmed that the 2021 WNBA draft will take place April 15, but said the competition has not decided whether it will be virtual or whether it will have in-person attendees. The concept for 2020 is all done virtually with video streaming.

Engelbert said the league would follow how things went in women’s basketball’s post-season with regard to COVID-19 before final decisions were made on the format of the draft.

The league also announced that the Commissioner’s Cup, a season competition originally scheduled to start in 2020 before the season was changed by the pandemic, will debut in 2021.

The Commissioner’s Cup consists of 10 designated regular season games per team that count towards the ranking that determines the best two to play for the cup. The Commissioner’s Cup Championship match is scheduled after the Olympic break to kick-start the return to the season.