WNBA unveils logo, basketball and uniforms as part of the ‘Count It’ campaign in celebration of the 25-year season

The WNBA announced on Monday that it will present a logo, basketball and uniforms as part of the “Count It” campaign in celebration of the 25-year season in 2021.

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

“We want to recount all of the league’s achievements, from a game perspective, but also in culture and society,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN on the topic “Count It”. “The reason we decided to use counts in the logo was to convey the idea of, ‘Keep counting, because there is so much more to come from the WNBA.’

“We hope to have a lot of fan involvement around all of these elements, along with the nomination of our 25 greatest players and 25 greatest moments. And our social justice council continued to come together to continue to do important work in their communities.”

Social justice was the WNBA’s main focus last season on the bubble in Bradenton, Fla., Where the league had a regular 22-game season with the traditional playoffs won by Seattle. The WNBA will return to its home markets this season. Engelbert said the league hopes to announce its schedule in the coming weeks. Before the schedule shortened by the pandemic last year, the WNBA planned to have a season of 36 games.

“It’s a little bit like a Rubik’s cube, which is why it’s taking a little longer than usual,” said Engelbert of the work on the availability of television and the arena for this year’s programming. “We are tracking something between 30 and 36 games. It is also a challenge because of the Olympic break, and we want to leave some space for ourselves if we have to reschedule any game because of COVID.”

Engelbert said whether fans will be allowed into WNBA games this season will be announced at a later date. Much of the testing and social detachment protocol with players, coaches and officials that the league successfully used last season will remain this season in individual markets. This will present its own challenges, instead of having everyone in the same bubble.

“Obviously, our teams are already talking to local health officials,” said Engelbert. “Hopefully, some markets will allow fans, mainly in a reduced way at the beginning. Perhaps leaving the Olympic holiday, we will be in a different place as we have more of the vaccinated population and less spread of the virus by the community.

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

Engelbert confirmed that the 2021 WNBA draft will be held on April 15, but said the league has not yet decided whether it will be virtual or will have face-to-face participants. The 2020 draft was all done virtually with streaming video.

Engelbert said the league would monitor how things were going in the post-season women’s college basketball game compared to COVID-19 before making final decisions on the draft format.

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

The Commissioner’s Cup is made up of 10 regular season games designated by a team that will count towards the ranking that will determine the first two to compete in the Cup. The Commissioner’s Cup championship game is planned to take place after the Olympic break to boost the return to the season.