The Nashville Vibe: Music City’s new women’s pro basketball team unveils name

The Nashville Vibe is the name of the city’s new women’s professional basketball team.

It’s the sixth team to join the UPSHOT league, which launched in May 2026 with four franchises across the Southeast. 

Hundreds gathered at Vanderbilt University’s Memorial Gym on Tuesday for the team name and logo reveal. The free public event featured a slew of women’s basketball legends with Tennessee ties, including Cathy Bender, the first Black woman to receive a full athletic scholarship at Vanderbilt. 

Bender was also the first Black woman to chair the Metro Sports Authority, and she told the crowd that the team is a great investment because the state has a high demand for entertainment and sports.  

“Tennessee is a women’s basketball state,” she said. “I’m going to start right here at Vanderbilt, and then we’re going all the way to Knoxville and a number of teams across the state.”

Numbers support her claim, with viewership and attendance for the WNBA having increased by about 12% since last year.

Chamique Holdsclaw — University of Tennessee alumna and six-time Olympic gold medalist — echoed Bender’s sentiments about the value in expanding women’s professional sports teams. She highlighted the personal sacrifices she made early in her career when she’d work overseas after the end of the WNBA season. 

“I had to leave my family, not being able to build those relationships and enjoy those moments with my nieces and nephews,” she said. “If I had this opportunity, I could have built a community home, and been able to do the work in the community in whatever area I wanted.”

Mayor Freddie O’Connell and Metro Nashville Public Schools Superintendent Adrienne Battle also gave remarks to the crowd, which included middle and high school students from Pearl Cohn, Antioch, Martin Luther King and Hume Fogg.

Other WNBA legends in attendance included Cheryl Miller and Candice Dupree, who is the head coach of Tennessee State University’s women’s basketball team. 

The Nashville Vibe is set to debut during summer 2027 along with the Baltimore Starlings.