The WNBA has never been more popular. Last season, fans filled the stadium as new stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese rose to prominence. TV viewership soared. And the league has more in store with a media rights deal that will pay $200 million annually over 11 years.
It’s a dramatic turnaround for a league that struggled to generate revenue during its first two decades. And the clearest sign that the “W” has turned a corner may be the intense interest in the city’s next expansion team, which has yet to be announced.
About a dozen potential owners are vying for the franchise, which experts say could be worth up to $200 million. Among them are Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum.
“People are clamoring for this because they see this as a great opportunity and they feel like they can still get in early,” said Teresa Lesch, president of Toronto’s hotly anticipated WNBA team, which will play its first game in 2026. .
The league’s revenue doubled from $102 million to $200 million from 2019 to 2023. Even excluding Clark’s draw, attendance increased 29% from 2023 to 2024. That’s nearly double the 16% increase from 2022 to 2023, said Frank Stephenson, a sports economist at Berry. University in Georgia.
“The WNBA is definitely on a roll and it’s understandable that they’re trying to generate revenue by naming some expansion teams,” he said.
This is what women’s basketball fans have been waiting for for decades. This is a league that exists to thrive, not just stay.
Fran Harris, a former Houston Comets player and leader of the process to bring the team to Austin, said the process of choosing the next host city is fluid. In addition to Austin, the candidates reportedly include Philadelphia, Denver, St. Louis, Houston, Milwaukee, and Kansas City.
“Surprisingly, what is not the biggest challenge is the capital,” Harris said. “The biggest challenge was the competition. “When we started talking to The W last year, there were probably three other cities on the table.”
Now, as WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, the league is considering 10 to 12 locations for a 16th team. Cleveland, backed by Cavaliers owner Rocket Entertainment Group, was the latest to announce a bid on Wednesday.
Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, said the flurry of bids was an example of the emerging nature of women’s sports.
“The owners are doing it for something other than just money, or at least they could be,” he said.
For most of the league’s existence, WNBA games were broadcast infrequently and at inconsistent times. Several teams have folded, including cities like Cleveland and Houston that are currently competing for new teams. This is because the owner did not want to incur additional losses.
That trend has changed in recent years and the league has benefited from intentional investments. When Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai took over the faltering New York Liberty in 2019, they moved the team from Westchester County to Brooklyn and outfitted it with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including chartering a private jet for the trip. They ended up being a championship team in 2024.
Recent expansion teams have fetched record prices. $50 million each for the Golden State Valkyries and Toronto; $125 million to Portland. All three bids were won by NBA franchise owners in the same city, and two of the three incoming teams were expected to play in the same location as the men’s team. Season ticket deposits are in the thousands. The Valkyries are scheduled to hold an expansion draft on December 6 and begin play in 2025. Like Toronto, Portland is still deciding on a team name and is scheduled to start in 2026.
“I think there will be people willing to pay more and take financial losses to be a part of the women’s sports movement,” Matheson said.
But Dennis Coates, a professor of sports economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said that even if you think of sports teams as billionaires’ playthings, smart investors will only take that much of a loss. The renewed willingness to invest large sums of money in the WNBA suggests long-term financial viability, he said.
That will please longtime fans.
“I really believe this is just the tip of a huge iceberg,” said Jenny Nguyen, owner of Sports Bra, a women’s sports bar in Portland, Oregon.
Nguyen, 44, said she has been waiting for the WNBA to return to Portland since the Fire’s demise in 2002.
“If you think about where women’s sport is right now, it’s basically based on really hard work and very little investment and very little resources,” she said. “Everything that takes something from okay to great.”
“I never imagined something like this would happen during my career. I never thought there would be a legitimate league where we would get paid, be on television, etc,” Harris said.
Resch, the Toronto team president, said it’s up to leaders like her to maintain the current momentum.
“We all have to work on ourselves,” she said. “If we want the league to evolve and grow, not just in W, but in women’s sports in general, we have to find ways to continue to push the boundaries and break through.
“More exposure means more eyeballs. And once they get there, it’s our job to keep them interested.”
For players, an expanded league means bigger rosters. The NBA has 30 teams, but the WNBA has only had 12 in recent years. This has made the women’s league extremely competitive to enter.
The expansion allows players to negotiate for better rewards.
On Oct. 21, a day after the New York Liberty won the decisive Game 5 of the Finals, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association rejected a collective bargaining agreement set to expire in 2027.
Under the current contract, the WNBA’s 2024 salary cap is $1,463,200, with players taking less than 10% of the revenue. By contrast, the NBA’s salary cap is just under $141 million, with players taking about 50% of the revenue.
Seattle Storm forward and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike called the move a “defining moment.”
“Exiting isn’t just about getting paid more. It’s about claiming our fair share of the business we’ve built, improving our working conditions and ensuring a future where the success we create benefits today’s players and generations to come. This is a guarantee.”
Notre Dame forward Maddie Westveld, who is expected to be drafted in 2025, said female college players are already reaping the benefits.
“There are brands and companies that are reaching out right now, but it’s not even a short-term NIL opportunity that we can participate in,” she said, referring to the money college athletes can make with their personal brand, or “name, image and name.” said. Portrait.” “I’m planting seeds with various companies so that this can be an investment not only for me specifically this year, but for the rest of my career.”
Westbeld added that her interest in women’s basketball players as fashion icons opened her “tunnel vision mindset” to business opportunities that previously went beyond the game itself.
“No matter what you choose, doors are opening left and right,” she said.
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