Cleveland looks to the future with its new WNBA franchise.
The organization will debut in 2028 and be branded as the Cleveland Sirens, the team announced Tuesday.
“The Cleveland Sirens are gritty, unapologetic, fearless and relentless, representing this region, our Great Lakes and the future of our city and women’s basketball,” President of Business Operations Allison Howard said in a press release.
Instead of reviving the Cleveland Rockers, who played in the WNBA from 1997 to 2003, the team will begin this chapter with a new identity. According to Howard, the new Cleveland franchise will not absorb the Rockers’ history; will exist as two separate statistical entities.
The Sirens will play at Rocket Arena, home of the NBA Cavaliers. Their performance center, a 55,000-square-foot facility, is currently used by their NBA counterparts, but is being converted into a facility for the Sirens.
The Sirens will be the WNBA’s 16th team, the next in the rapidly expanding league. Cleveland gained an expansion team in June 2025, along with Detroit and Philadelphia, who will join the league in 2029 and 2030. This season, the WNBA welcomed the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, and the 2025 Golden State Valkyries became the first expansion team since 2008.
The Sirens have been building toward their inaugural season, hiring Howard as president of business operations last August. She remained in her role as executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Rock Entertainment Group and the Cleveland Cavaliers through the 2025-26 NBA season before transitioning fully into her WNBA role.
In the process of choosing the new name, a 13-month endeavor that included market research, surveys and thousands of community conversations, Howard said her team knew it had to highlight the region’s greatest asset: Lake Erie, something other major Ohio teams have yet to do. Once that guiding principle was in place, the name “took off” from there, she said.
“The design of the siren, it’s forward-looking, it’s progressive,” Howard said The Athletic. “It was also intentional because we believe the WNBA is moving forward, we believe women’s sports are moving forward and we believe Northeast Ohio is moving forward.”
The organization teased the announcement with the phrase “Hear the Call,” a reference to the alluring voices of mythological sirens.
“There’s definitely a part of the siren and fan of women’s sports that’s been under the surface, and she and he haven’t had a voice, and now we’re giving them that time to come to the surface and be heard,” Howard said.
The team logo emphasizes the movement of Sirena. The accents on the sides of the stamp are meant to resemble echoing sound waves, like a siren’s call.
Siren’s palette of blues reflects the gradient of Lake Erie from depth to surface. Blue is also a tribute to the color of the Rockers. Cleveland’s new franchise plans to have a close connection to its past despite the new name. Former Rockers players will be at the brand launch, and there will also be an alumni program.
Howard says he hopes fans will organically create chants and songs that go with the Sirens name.
Another professional women’s team has the same name: the New York Sirens of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Howard said they’ve discussed potential overlap, but since the teams are in different sports and markets and represent different entities — the New York Sirens are inspired by the screeching sound of a goal scored — there were no concerns, and she’d even like to work with a PWHL team.
Ahead of the 2028 launch, in addition to developing a brand identity, the franchise has built out its staff and roster of partnerships, including the Cleveland Clinic. One aspect of that partnership is conducting research specific to female athletes.
“We always put our community first, so with every partner we come on board with, you’ll see that as a main pillar of what we do in the community,” Howard said.
