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2027 WNBA coaching tracker: open jobs and vacancy clock

Ryan MoalemiBy Ryan Moalemi

Status checked Nov. 11, 2026: both jobs are still open, and neither the Sparks nor the Liberty has announced a permanent coach (coaching changes tracker). Through Nov. 11, the Sparks job has been open 47 days and the Liberty job 8 days. The table, clock and team notes below are the Nov. 4 edition.

As of Nov. 4, 2026, the Sparks job has been open 40 days and the Liberty job 1 day. No permanent coach has been named. Day 0 is the team's announcement. Days open run from that date through Nov. 4. The wait counts calendar days from the coach's last game to the announcement. For New York, that game is the Oct. 9 playoff elimination.

Open jobs as of Nov. 4, 2026

Two coaches have been fired. Two permanent jobs are open. No permanent hire has been announced. Chris DeMarco photo: John Mac, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Team Coach Last game Announced Exit Wait Days open 2026 season
Los Angeles Sparks Lynne Roberts Sept. 24 Sept. 25 Fired 1 40 16-28, tied for 10th, missed playoffs
New York Liberty Chris DeMarco Oct. 9 Nov. 3 Fired 25 1 26-18, No. 8 seed, lost semifinals 0-3

Fired follows the national reporting. The Sparks release says the team parted ways with Roberts, effective that day. The Liberty post says "Thank you, Coach DeMarco." Alexa Philippou of ESPN reported that New York would not retain him. Field Level Media and the New York Post reported that he was fired. On Nov. 3, the day New York moved, the Sparks job had been open 39 days.

Vacancy clock

Days since each team announced the opening. An open circle means the job is still open. The scale runs from the announcement to day 80.

Los Angeles Sparks, 40 days open

New York Liberty, 1 day open

Day 0 is the announcement. Numbers on the axis are days open.

How these teams hired last time

Each row is that franchise's previous search, a benchmark for its own timeline.

The Sparks are 16 days short of the 56 days they took to hire Roberts. Day 56 of the current search is Nov. 20, 2026. The same 59-day and 71-day intervals from Nov. 3, 2026 land on Jan. 1, 2027 and Jan. 13, 2027.
Team Cycle Outgoing coach Exit Announced Deal reported Official hire Successor Days to report Days to official hire
Los Angeles Sparks 2024 Curt Miller Mutual Sept. 24, 2024 Nov. 19, 2024 Nov. 19, 2024 Lynne Roberts 56 56
New York Liberty 2025 Sandy Brondello Contract not renewed Sept. 23, 2025 Nov. 21, 2025 Dec. 3, 2025 Chris DeMarco 59 71

Download the search table (CSV), the event log (CSV), and the historical comparisons (CSV). Free to use and republish (CC0).

Los Angeles Sparks

Open 40 days as of Nov. 4. Wait after the last game: 1 day. General manager: Ariana Andonian, named Sept. 4, 2026. Interim: none named.

The Sparks lost their season finale on Thursday night, Sept. 24, at Crypto.com Arena. Golden State won 76-75. The WNBA.com game page, in an Associated Press recap, says Los Angeles led 69-57 with 4:42 left and did not make another field goal until the final second. Golden State closed on a 17-4 run. The same page lists the Sparks' largest lead at 16. Lynne Roberts was called for a technical foul with 10.8 seconds left. The game was Nneka Ogwumike's last. She finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds.

The Sparks announced the move the next morning. The team release, timestamped 10:31 a.m. PT on Sept. 25, says Los Angeles "parted ways with Head Coach Lynne Roberts, effective today." Special advisor Farhan Zaidi said Roberts' commitment "was evident all the way through our last game last night." Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic and Marisa Ingemi of the Los Angeles Times both reported the move as a firing. Before the finale, Roberts told the Times she thought the franchise needed stability: "just give us a goalpost, and we'll march down the field in that way."

Roberts' two seasons were 21-23 in 2025 and 16-28 in 2026, a combined 37-51. That is five wins fewer than 2025. Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix all finished 16-28. Nine teams had a better record, so the Sparks are tied for 10th. They missed the playoffs for a sixth straight season. In September 2024, the Associated Press described Miller's exit as the fourth consecutive miss. The 2025 and 2026 misses make six.

The contract figure is Merchant's, from sources, and the team has not confirmed a payment. Roberts had finished year two of a four-year deal with a team option in year five. The deal was not fully guaranteed. Because she was fired without cause, Merchant reported, the Sparks owe the lesser of one year or the remaining base salary. Year three was scheduled at $950,000 and year four at $975,000, so the reported obligation is $950,000. The Athletic story is also at The Athletic.

Andonian was already the general manager when Roberts was dismissed. The Sparks hiring release is dated Sept. 4. Merchant wrote on Sept. 25 that Andonian had been working since the start of the month and would be introduced the next week. At her introductory press conference on Sept. 29, David Yapkowitz of ClutchPoints quoted Andonian: "We want to take our time with this process and make sure that we get it right. We want an excellent leader, an excellent communicator, someone who is collaborative and willing to come to work in the W and work with all of us." In the same answer she called the coach she wants "a great developer of talent." Lindsay Gibbs of CBS Sports also reported that the franchise is up for sale.

New York Liberty

Open 1 day as of Nov. 4. Wait after the last game: 25 days. General manager: Jonathan Kolb. Interim: none reported.

DeMarco's season ended Friday night, Oct. 9, at Barclays Center. The fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream won 85-83 and completed a three-game semifinal sweep, in the Associated Press recap on WNBA.com. Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones scored 26 points apiece. New York had swept the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the first round, then lost the semifinals. The Liberty finished the regular season 26-18 and were the No. 8 seed, one win fewer than their 27-17 season in 2025.

On June 30 they beat Las Vegas 93-85 at Barclays Center to win the Commissioner's Cup, on the WNBA.com game page.

On Nov. 3, Philippou reported that the Liberty would not retain DeMarco after one season, and that he had said he expected to return in 2027. The same day, the Liberty account posted "Thank you, Coach DeMarco." Field Level Media reported that DeMarco, who was under contract for 2027, was fired. The New York Post confirmed the firing and said the terms of any buyout were not immediately known. Sabrina Ionescu, in the Field Level Media account: "I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "Regardless, thankful for him coaching us this year and giving us a chance, and we just fell short."

This is New York's third head coach in three seasons. Sandy Brondello coached the 2024 championship team and the 2025 team. On Sept. 23, 2025, the Liberty announced they would not renew her contract after a first-round loss. The Associated Press quoted Kolb thanking her as the first coach to win a title for the franchise. Alexa Philippou reported on Nov. 21, 2025 that the Liberty had agreed to hire DeMarco. The official release is dated Dec. 3, 2025, and calls him a four-time NBA champion. Philippou reported that Stewart, Jones, and Ionescu are under contract through 2028. Gibbs reported that Satou Sabally and Leonie Fiebich are under contract for next season. Gibbs also wrote that, at that point, Los Angeles was the only other head coaching vacancy.

Who is still in a job is in the WNBA head coach guide. Only 3 of 15 coaches have lasted more than two seasons with their current team.

Methodology

The tracker follows WNBA head coaching changes from each team's last game of 2026 through the first tip of the 2027 regular season. This page is the Nov. 4, 2026 edition. Any job still open at the 2027 opener keeps its final day count and is marked open at opening tip.

Three dates are stored separately when they exist: the first report by credentialed media, the team's public announcement, and the team's announcement of a permanent hire. The vacancy clock uses the team's announcement as Day 0 and the team's permanent-hire announcement as the end. A reported agreement before that announcement is a marker on the way, which is why New York's 2025 search is 59 days to the report and 71 days to the official hire.

Dates are calendar dates. Day counts are the difference between two dates. The Nov. 1, 2026 clock change does not affect them.

Exits use five labels: Fired, Contract not renewed, Resigned, Mutual, or Terms unclear. A release that only says "parted ways" does not, by itself, decide the label. Miller's 2024 exit is Mutual because the team said the sides had mutually agreed to part ways. Brondello's 2025 exit is Contract not renewed because the team said it would not renew her contract. Roberts and DeMarco are Fired because that is how the beat and national reports describe those decisions.

An interim coach is an event. The permanent job stays open until a permanent coach is announced. Reported salary and buyout figures stay attached to the reporter who published them. They are separate from a payment the team has confirmed. Unknown terms stay blank.

The Sparks' 2024 hire date in the table is Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, the day the WNBA.com story says the team announced it. That story's own timestamp is Nov. 20, 2024. Roberts was introduced at a press conference on Nov. 21, 2024. The introduction is a later event, and the 56-day count uses Nov. 19.

Game scores on this page come from WNBA.com pages and Associated Press recaps on those pages. Records come from Basketball-Reference 2026 standings and the 2025 standings. Coaching news is cited to the reporter who wrote it.

Data dictionary

The tables above are the readable version of three files. The files are free to use and republish (CC0).

searches_2027.csv

events_2027.csv

One row per dated event. event_type is final_game, departure_reported, departure_confirmed, search_milestone, or contract_report. evidence_status is Reported or Team confirmed.

historical_comparisons.csv

One row per prior franchise search. days_to_reported_agreement and announcement_to_announcement_days use the same calendar subtraction as the open-job clock.

Sources

How the pages on this site are made: How we make Full Court Buckets. How the numbers are calculated: How we calculate.