The WNBA has never been more popular. Fans filled arenas last season as rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese became household names. Television audiences soared. And the league has prepared to do more with a media rights deal that will pay $200 million a year for 11 years.
It’s a dramatic turnaround for a league that struggled to generate revenue during its first two decades. And perhaps the clearest sign that “the W” has turned a corner is the interest shown in its next expansion team — in a city that has yet to be announced.
About a dozen potential owners are vying for the franchise, which experts say could bring in as much as $200 million. Among them are Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum.
“People see it as a great opportunity, and they’re clamoring for it because they feel like they can still get in early,” said Teresa Resch, president of the highly anticipated WNBA team in Toronto, which will play its first game in 2026.
League revenue doubled from $102 million to $200 million between 2019 and 2023. Attendance, even excluding the Clark draw, increased 29% between 2023 and 2024, nearly the double the 16% growth from 2022 to 2023, said sports economist Frank Stephenson of Berry. College in Georgia.
“The WNBA is certainly on a roll, and it’s understandable that they’re trying to capitalize by naming expansion teams,” he said.
It’s something women’s basketball fans have been waiting for decades for: a league that’s here not only to stay, but to thrive.
The process of choosing the next host city is fluid, said Fran Harris, a former Houston Comets player and leader of the process to bring a team to Austin. Besides Austin, the list of candidates reportedly includes Philadelphia, Denver, St. Louis, Houston, Milwaukee and Kansas City.
“What surprisingly hasn’t been the biggest challenge is the capital,” Harris said. “The big challenge was the competition. When we started talking to The W last year, there were maybe three other cities at the table.
Now, as WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, the league is considering 10 to 12 slots for its 16th team. Cleveland, backed by Cavaliers owner Rocket Entertainment Group, was the latest to announce an offer last Wednesday.
The rush of applications illustrates the new cachet of women’s sports, said Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
“The owners are there for more than money, or at least they can be,” he said.
For much of the league’s existence, WNBA games were rarely televised and at inconsistent times. Several teams folded — including in cities like Cleveland and Houston, which are now vying for a new team — because owners didn’t want to suffer further losses.
This trend has changed in recent years, with the league benefiting from intentional investment. When Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai took over the New York Liberty in 2019, they moved the team from Westchester County to Brooklyn and equipped it with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including chartering jets private for travel. They ended up with a championship team in 2024.
The latest round of expansion teams fetched record prices: $50 million each for the Golden State Valkyries and Toronto; $125 million for Portland. All three bids were won by owners of NBA franchises from the same city, with two of the three incoming teams scheduled to play in the same venues as their male counterparts. Subscription deposits number in the thousands. The Valkyries will have their expansion draft on December 6 and will begin play in 2025. Portland, like Toronto, is still determining a team name and will be in 2026.
“I think some people will be willing to pay more and accept financial losses just to be part of the women’s sports movement,” Matheson said.
But even if you think of a sports team as a billionaire’s toy, a savvy investor is only willing to take a limited amount of losses, said Dennis Coates, a professor of sports economics at the University of Maryland. , Baltimore County. The new willingness to bet so much on the WNBA speaks to its long-term financial viability, he said.
This delights long-time fans.
“I truly believe this is just the tip of an iceberg that will be really huge,” 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 we think about where women’s sport is right now, it’s basically down to very hard work and very little investment, very little resources,” she said. “All the things that take something from okay to great.”
Harris agreed, saying, “I never thought this would happen in my playing life… where there would be a legitimate league where we would get paid, where we were on TV, that type of thing.”
Resch, the president of the Toronto team, said it’s up to leaders like her to maintain the current momentum.
“We all have to push ourselves,” she said. “If we really want the league to evolve and grow and women’s sports in general, not just the W, we really need to push the boundaries and look for ways to continue to break through.
“More exposure, more eyeballs.” And then it’s our job, once they’re there, to keep them interested.
For players, an expanded league means more roster spots. While the NBA has 30 teams, the WNBA has only had 12 in recent years. This makes the women’s league extremely competitive.
The expansion also encouraged players to negotiate better compensation.
On October 21, a day after the New York Liberty won the deciding Game 5 of the Finals, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association withdrew from the collective bargaining agreement that was set to expire in 2027.
Under the current contract, the WNBA salary cap for 2024 is $1,463,200, with players taking home less than 10% of revenue. In contrast, the NBA’s salary cap is just under $141 million, with players taking home about 50% of the revenue.
Seattle Storm forward and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike called the decision a “defining moment.”
“Standing out isn’t just about higher pay: it’s also about reclaiming our rightful share of the business we’ve built, improving working conditions and ensuring a future where the success we create benefits players today and generations to come. »
Maddy Westbeld, a Notre Dame forward expected to be drafted in 2025, said college players are already reaping the benefits.
“There are brands and companies reaching out to us right now and it’s not even short-term NIL opportunities that we can participate in,” she said, referring to the money that college athletes can earn through their personal brands, or “name, image and likeness.” “It’s about sowing seeds with different companies, which is not only an investment for me this year in particular, but for the rest of my career.”
Westbeld added that the excitement surrounding female basketball players as fashion icons has also opened up her former “tunnel vision mentality” to business opportunities beyond the game itself.
“Doors open left and right for whatever you choose to do,” she said.
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