There will be some significant changes in the WNBA in 2025, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Thursday.

Starting next year, the league plans to adopt a best-of-seven format for the WNBA Finals, similar to that of the NBA, moving away from the current best-of-five format.

Additionally, in the first round of the postseason, teams will see alternating home field advantage throughout the best-of-three series, making it a 1-1-1 format in terms of home and away matches. In the current format (2-1), the higher seed hosted the first two games of the series. The lower seed only achieved home field advantage if the series lasted three games, which none of this year’s first round matches did.

There will also be changes to the length of the regular season. Beginning in 2025, the WNBA will expand the regular season schedule so that each team will play 44 games, up from the 40 games played in 2024.

The league continues to grow after a record-breaking 2024 season, thanks to the emergence of popular new stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. A 13th franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, will also join the WNBA in 2025, with even more new teams set to debut in 2026.