The Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA League) held its new season launch ceremony in Chengdu on Monday as the 2023-2024 season WCBA was set to tip off on Tuesday.
Li Xinru (R) of Shandong team goes for a lay-up during the 17th round match between Hebei team and Shandong team at the 2020-2021 season Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) league in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Dec. 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Yuan)
The overall time span of the new season will be six months, excepting the New Year, Spring Festival and leaving time for the national team's preparations and participation in the Paris Olympic qualification matches.
The regular season, which features 38 rounds of games, will be divided into two stages, with the first from October 17 to January 1, 2024, and the second from February 17, 2024 to March 14, 2024.
The All-Star Weekend will take place from March 16 to 17, 2024, and the playoffs will run from March 19 to April 8, 2024, followed by the Finals from April 11 to 21. The playoffs will follow the best-of-three format, and the finals will adopt the best-of-five.
This season's foreign player policy allows clubs ranked 1st to 14th in the previous season to register one with no restrictions on playing time. For clubs ranked 15th to 17th in the previous season, they can register two, with a maximum of five person-time in four quarters each.
WCBA also revealed its new visuals themed "Shine on Court", to further present the league's characteristics of confidence, courage, vitality, initiative and beauty.
At the launching ceremony, referee representative, Yu Yijing, and the athlete representative, Han Xu, made the sportsmanship pledge.
The Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank will be on the road to play against defending champion Sichuan Yuanda Merlot on Tuesday for the season opener.