Cleveland’s future WNBA team has locked in a major health-care partner well before its first tipoff. Cleveland Clinic will serve as the franchise’s official and exclusive hospital and sports medicine provider beginning with the team’s 2028 debut.
The multiyear agreement is broader than sideline care. According to Cleveland.com, Cleveland Clinic will present the team’s year-round youth basketball program for girls across Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York, while players and youth participants will gain access to the Clinic’s WISER program.
WISER, short for Women’s Integrated Sports, Exercise and Research, focuses on injury prevention, performance, nutrition, mental health and overall well-being for female athletes at every level. The Cleveland Clinic announcement says the center uses a multidisciplinary model that brings together sports medicine, orthopedics, cardiology, adolescent medicine, physical therapy, psychology and other specialties.
A Medical Hub Is Coming Before The Team
The partnership will connect the WNBA franchise to the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, a 210,000-square-foot facility expected to open in 2027 on the Cuyahoga Riverfront. The official Cleveland WNBA announcement says the center will provide advanced performance technology and medical care, while Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence will remain the team’s exclusive training and practice facility.
The new center is also expected to serve athletes beyond the professional roster, with community wellness nights planned as part of its broader public-facing mission. That gives Cleveland’s expansion team a local footprint before it ever plays a regular-season game.
Cleveland Is Stacking Partners Early
The Cleveland Clinic deal follows a string of major commercial commitments for the still-forming franchise. KeyBank was named the team’s first founding partner and official retail bank, while Progressive became the official and exclusive insurance partner and the first multiyear WNBA partner to claim both chest and abdomen jersey placements.
The broader strategy is clear: Cleveland is selling the team as a civic and regional platform, not simply another tenant at Rocket Arena. The partnerships are being built around banking, insurance, health care, youth basketball and community programming before the team has even announced its final identity.
Cleveland’s 2028 Return Is Now Official
The WNBA and NBA Board of Governors formally approved Cleveland’s expansion franchise on April 9, 2026, with the team set to begin play in 2028. The WNBA said Cleveland will be the league’s 16th franchise, operated by Dan Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment Group and playing home games at Rocket Arena.
For the region, the Cleveland Clinic partnership creates a pipeline linking elite medical care, girls’ basketball and professional sports. Marie Schaefer described it to Cleveland.com as a “transformational moment” for women’s sports in the region, and the deal gives that phrase some very concrete pieces: doctors, training facilities, youth programs and a team preparing to arrive in 2028.
