{"id":18287,"date":"2026-09-03T16:44:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/league-expansion\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:44:37","slug":"league-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/league-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"League expansion: what twenty teams means for the calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty teams sounds like a rounding error until you draw the calendar. Two more fixtures a month, one fewer rest day, and a television contract that pays for both \u2014 that is the shape of the league from next season, and the coaches found out about it the same afternoon you did.<\/p>\n\n

Where the games go<\/h2>\n\n

The league has committed to a 38-game regular season inside the same 26 weeks. The arithmetic only works if the midweek window becomes permanent, which is exactly what the broadcast deal was written to guarantee.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The new midweek slot lands on the night domestic cup ties have used for a decade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

What the coaches asked for<\/h2>\n\n

Three things: a roster expansion to 15, a hard cap on back-to-backs, and a say in the tip-off times. They got the first, half of the second and none of the third.<\/p>\n\n

We asked for rest. They gave us a bus.<\/p>\u2014 Head coach, speaking off the record<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

The money<\/h2>\n\n

The broadcaster pays a reported 34% more per season for 21% more games. Split twenty ways, that is a rise for every club \u2014 and a smaller one for the sixteen that were already here.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two more fixtures a month, one fewer rest day, and a television deal that pays for both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_spx_person_id":0,"_spx_fixture_id":0,"_spx_pick_id":0,"_spx_eg_facts_label":"","_spx_eg_facts":"","_spx_figure_caption":"","_spx_news_feat":"","_spx_video_url":"","_spx_duration":"","_spx_views":"","_spx_presenter":"","_spx_media_state":"","_spx_start_at":"","_spx_media_status":"","_spx_episode":"","_spx_subject":"","_spx_subject_role":"","_spx_story_year":"","_spx_duration_seconds":0,"_spx_view_count":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,98,113],"spx_comp":[],"spx_fixture_ref":[],"spx_series":[],"spx_format":[],"spx_video_kind":[],"spx_show":[],"spx_sport":[],"spx_flag":[278],"class_list":["post-18287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-broadcast","tag-calendar","tag-continental-basketball-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_comp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_comp?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_fixture_ref","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_fixture_ref?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_series?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_format?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_video_kind","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_video_kind?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_show","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_show?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_sport?post=18287"},{"taxonomy":"spx_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_flag?post=18287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}