Women's professional basketball season opens on Nov. 16, opening game will be WKBL's first female coach's showdown
Sep 15, 2025
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Women's professional basketball will open in Busan on November 16.
The WKBL (Korea Women's Basketball Federation) confirmed the opening date of the 2025-2026 women's professional basketball and officially announced the schedule of the season.
The official opening game is the match between defending champion BNK Sum and Shinhan Bank at Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan from 2 p.m. on November 16. In particular, the match is drawing more attention as it is the first face-off between female coaches (BNK Park Jung-eun and Shinhan Bank coach Choi Yoon-ah) since the launch of the WKBL.
Unlike previous years, from this season, the game on Saturday, the weekend, will be expanded to increase the accessibility of fans to watch. On Saturday, two games will be played at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. On Sunday, Gyeonggi Province will also be held at 4 p.m. However, due to the broadcasting (Busan MBC), BNK's weekend and holiday home games will begin at 2 p.m. Instead of increasing the number of games on Saturday, the rest day has been changed from Tuesday to Thursday and twice a week.
The regular league will play 30 games per team and will be held until April 3 next year. The schedule was extended as the league was temporarily suspended for the final qualifying round of the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup from February 28 to March 22, 2026. In addition, the postseason will be held from April 8 to 30, 2026, and the All-Star Game will be held on January 4, 2026.
KB Stars, which center Park Ji-soo rejoined, is expected to strengthen this season, but as shown in the recent Park Shin-ja Cup, the Asian quarter player's performance is expected to be a significant factor in the increase in power. It is also clear that the increase in Saturday's game and rest days at the same time will be a significant variable. After the Park Shin-ja Cup, the six WKBL teams will prepare for the opening of the season with two months left by conducting off-season training in Japan and domestic training this month and next month.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
