The WPBA Announced as 2026 WBLA Participants

FIBA announced the teams expected to participate in this year’s Women’s Basketball League Americas tournament on Friday and the WPBA is scheduled to send a team again under the banner of the Bay Area Phoenix. The format will be six teams playing at one site in Santiago, Chile during the end of September and start of October. United States participation in international club basketball is not common as the Phoenix finished as runners up in the last tournament in 2024. Teams are not obligated to play the players who were with them during the season.

Teams and Format

Instead of two stages requiring teams to travel twice, the tournament has changed to a new format this year that will have the teams playing one even to determine the champion. The tournament will start with a group stage with teams playing two games. The winner of each group will get a bye to the semifinals while the other two teams will have to start the knockout rounds in the quarterfinals.

Sportiva Italiana, the team that the Phoenix defeated by a point in the semifinals two years ago, will represent Chile along with Colegio Los Leones de Quilpue. Ferro Carril Oeste of Argentina participated last time, but did not qualify for the final stage. Another historic club in South America, Defensor Sporting, will represent Uruguay. The final announced team is Brazilian powerhouse Araraquara, which won the last club championship of South America, but did not participate in the Americas-wide tournament, which does not fit their typical season schedule.

2024 Participation

The Phoenix participated in the 2024 version of this tournament, winning all three games in the group stage to advance to the knockout rounds. They returned to Medellin and a month later, winning the semifinal in an incredible double-overtime game. With no day of rest between games, they ran out of steam in the championship game and Antioquia was able to avenge their group stage loss. The Colombian powerhouse is not participating in this tournament. The documentary made about the event was previously on a site that required subscription, but has since been made freely available to everyone the league’s YouTube channel.