Detroit fans waiting for the return of professional women’s basketball to the Motor City will get a early treat; Unrivaled, the three-on-three basketball league for women, announced Monday, Sept. 14, that Little Caesars Arena will host two regular-season games in one night this winter.
After playing the vast majority of its games in South Florida over its first two seasons, Unrivaled will take its show on the road to eight cities this winter, including Detroit. The pair of games at LCA will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11, with tickets going on sale 4 p.m. Monday. (Though subscribers to the league’s newsletter will have access to a presale beginning at 3 p.m. Monday.) The games will also air on TNT, truTV and HBO Max.
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Detroit is the fourth city announced among the eight. The others: Boston (which will host the season opener on Jan. 8), New York (Jan. 22) and Philadelphia (Feb. 22). The rest will be announced later this month as part of the “Unrivaled on Tour with Ally” bus tour this month. Likewise, it’s unknown which teams will be visiting Detroit, with team rosters also yet to be set.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Unrivaled to Little Caesars Arena for the league’s first-ever game in Detroit,” 313 Presents COO Keith Dowdican said in a release from the league. “Hosting some of the world’s top women’s basketball players is a significant moment for our city and for the continued momentum of women’s sports. We’re proud to help bring this experience to Detroit, inspiring the next generation of athletes while creating an unforgettable night for fans across our basketball community.”
Unrivaled plays on a compressed 49.2 by 72-foot court, with an 18-second shot clock. The league is made up of eight teams, each with six players apiece, and features several of the sport’s biggest stars, including Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, Skylar Diggins and Breanna Stewart. There are also a pair of players with local ties: Rickea Jackson, the Detroit Edison star who’s arguably the best high school player to come out of Michigan, and Naz Hillmon, who led the U-M women to the program’s only Elite Eight berth in 2022.
The visit from Unrivaled will be part of a massive expansion of women’s sports in Detroit over the next 2½ years. The Detroit City FC women have played in the pre-professional USL W League since 2022. The Professional Women’s Hockey League is expanding to Detroit this fall, with the 12-team league scheduled to start its fourth season in December; “PWHL Detroit” – a name is still to be announced – will become the third team to call LCA home (along with the Detroit Pistons of the NBA and the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL).
That number will grow to four in 2029, when an as-yet-unnamed WNBA expansion team is slated to begin play in Detroit. Previously, the WNBA had a team, the Detroit Shock, in metro Detroit; they shared the Palace of Auburn Hills with the Pistons from 1998-2009, winning three WNBA titles before moving to Tulsa (and then to Dallas in 2016).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Unrivaled women's basketball league coming to Detroit for two games
