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An effort to bring professional women’s basketball back to Detroit is officially underway.
Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores and his wife Holly — backed by a team of local investors — submitted a formal bid Thursday for the city to receive a WNBA expansion franchise.
The group — which also includes Jared Goff, Grant Hill and Chris Webber — would be bidding against at least 10 other NBA owners and business ventures for the league’s 16th team.
If successful, they would revive the legacy of the Detroit Shock, which won three championships as one of the league’s first expansion franchises from 1998-2009. CNBC reported the group has filed for a trademark for the previous “Detroit Shock” name.
“This is an exciting opportunity to welcome the WNBA back to Detroit and bring additional investment and economic activity into the city,” Gores said in a release from the team Friday. “For the WNBA this is home, and our bid represents an unprecedented opportunity for the league to come full circle and effect a long-hoped-for Detroit homecoming. No city is more prepared to embrace the team as a community asset that drives unity and common ground.”
The investor team includes a long list of local athletes and team executives, business and community leaders, and philanthropists — such as Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem and his wife, Nancy; Lions principal owner Sheila Hamp and her husband, Steve; General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra and her husband, Tony; and many others.
Swin Cash and Katie Smith are among the standouts who helped lead the Shock to their trio of titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008. They were coached by former Bad Boys legend Bill Laimbeer from 2002 until the team departed Detroit for Tulsa ahead of the 2010 season. Today, the Shock are known as the Dallas Wings.
Bids for the 16th WNBA team were due Thursday and at least 10 expansion bids were submitted, a league source told USA TODAY Sports. New York-based private investment bank Allen & Company is serving as the initial clearinghouse for those bids.
Many of the suitors have celebrity ties, including Nashville (backed by Peyton Manning), Kansas City (Patrick Mahomes), St. Louis (Jayson Tatum), Austin (Kevin Durant) and Houston (Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta). Also thought to have applied are Cleveland, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
USA TODAY reported the expansion price for the last expansion team awarded, Portland for 2026, was $125 million for the team. The 16th team could cost investors $200 million.
If Detroit is selected, the new WNBA team would play all 22 of its home games at Little Caesars Arena, but the bid includes plans for a brand new practice facility and team headquarters separate from the Pistons’ facilities in New Center. The new development plans also include a “publicly accessible sports center,” per the team, that eventually would lead to the creation of a youth development academy providing athletic facilities for the community.
“Little Caesars Arena is one of the premier arenas in the entire world, and we’ve been able to work out that we’re gonna have incredible space for the women’s team there and for the visiting women’s team that will be equal to the Pistons and the Red Wings,” Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem said. “We built the Pistons Performance Center in partnership with Henry Ford.
“They know the quality that we built for the Pistons and we committed to building one equal to the Pistons Performance Center for the new women’s team, should we get it.”
The league has 12 active teams with a 13th team, the Golden State Valkyries, debuting this upcoming season. In 2026, the league also will add expansion teams in Toronto (the Tempo) and Portland (yet to be named).
Tellem pointed to the Shock’s fan support in Detroit as an indicator for what a new WNBA team could achieve. During their championship run, they were top-three in attendance for five straight seasons and No. 1 for three straight seasons.
“As we point out in our bid, the Shock had incredible support,” Tellem said. “This is long before the recent surge of women’s sports. The Shock were always among the leaders in attendance in the WNBA, going back. We know there’s incredible fan interest here. We look at a group of investors that are here to support it, that to me is also an indication in the validation that we know there’s going to be incredible support throughout our community, from our incredible fanbase that knows Detroit is one of the most passionate fanbases in the entire country.”
The full list of investors in the Detroit bid are:
- Tom and Holly Gores
- Grant and Tamia Hill
- Sheila Ford Hamp and Steve Hamp
- Mary and Tony Barra
- Arn and Nancy Tellem
- Chris Webber
- Jared and Christen Goff
- Roger and Carin Ehrenberg
- Ethan and Gretchen Davidson
- Denise Ilitch
- KC and Ashley Crain
- Larry Brinker Jr
- Andra Rush
- Sandy and Tom Pierce
- Steve Jbara
- Beth Chappell
- Mindi Fynke
- Suzanne Shank
- Matthew and Karen Cullen
- Sportsology Capital Partners, LP
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on X @omarisankofa.
