Cleveland's new WNBA team hosted nearly 700 K-12 and college students from around Cuyahoga County at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Tuesday in a ceremony to welcome the WNBA back to the city.

The WNBA won't officially return until 2028, but the new team is already making a commitment to invest in women athletes in Ohio.

"We don't start bouncing the basketball for 32 more months and look at what we're doing today," President of Business Operations for Cleveland's WNBA team Allison Howard said. "If that's any indication of what I like to call the long orange runway of what we have planned, not only for the city, but ... for the entire sport."

Cleveland was one of the eight original WNBA cities in 1997, home to the Cleveland Rockers. But the team folded in 2003.

The name for the WNBA’s new Cl

See Full Page