Editor’s note: This article has been updated.
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WNBA players have long lagged behind the NBA in earning power, often forcing them to leave their families to work overseas during the offseason, leaving them to manage child care. children and secure enough funding and sponsorships to support their careers. To solve this problem, two WNBA players – Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty and Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx – are founding a new professional women’s basketball league to give top players the opportunity to play at the national level during the offseason. .
“We remain committed to the WNBA, but there is a problem: Players must choose between playing overseas to maximize their income in the winter or staying home with their families,” Collier said. said on Twitter. “We decided to create our own solution.”
The league, called Unrivivaled, will initially feature 30 players across six franchises and will feature “an innovative style” of 3-on-3 played on a shortened field with “more spacing, more scoring and shorter games,” Collier said on Twitter.
The new league, which was first reported by ESPN Thursday, is scheduled to run from January through March on a soundstage in Miami. Collier and Stewart said they founded it largely in response to new WNBA prioritization rules that would make it harder for players to play overseas during the offseason. Many female basketball players join foreign leagues during the offseason because they can do up to 10 times so much money in other countries – which attracted wide attention last year when Brittney Griner was arrested at the end of his offseason in Russia.
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Unrivaled would join another newly launched women’s professional league, Athletes Unlimited Basketballwhich ended its second season in March 2023.
Greg Bouris, director of the undergraduate sports management program at Adelphi University, said it’s exciting to see professional athletes taking the initiative to have more of a voice in their sport. This new women’s basketball league follows a trend of female athletes encountering problems and finding their own solutions: new professional women’s football league and a new professional women’s hockey league are also launched in 2024.
“It’s great to see that women here are taking the bull by the horns and saying, ‘Hey, let’s do our own thing,'” said Bouris, who also has decades of experience working with teams and associations professionals. “The sports industry is very nuanced and unique in that the players are the product. This league allows them to have the final say on what this product will look like from a performance standpoint and how it will be presented to the public.
The WNBA’s new prioritization rules, which are expected to take full effect next season, were part of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement and require players to return from overseas before the start of training camp to be eligible for the season. However, the overseas season often runs until mid-May, making it difficult for WNBA players to play both domestically and abroad.
“We can’t keep fighting (the WNBA’s priority rule),” Stewart told ESPN. “It’s a rule that takes away our choices, which should never exist, especially as women, but it’s still a rule.”
Mahogany “Mo” Green, head women’s basketball coach at Hamilton College in New York, welcomed the launch of the new league.
“I think another option for women to play here in the United States is much needed,” Green said. “We have several leagues for male players. Why wouldn’t we offer the same experience to women?
(Abbie Parr/AP)
According to Spotrac data, the WNBA minimum salary was set at $62,285 this year, while the highest-paid players earned a maximum of $234,936. The 2020 bargaining agreement set the average salary of a WNBA player at six figures for the first time. Meanwhile, NBA players earn at least $1.4 million every season. In Unrivaled, each player will receive an equity stake in the league and earn salaries competitive with those in the WNBA, Collier said.
Many factors contribute to the size of the pay gap between male and female professional basketball players.
From a business perspective, Bouris said female athletes still lag behind their male counterparts in terms of revenue, which includes sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandise licensing and broadcast reach. Competition for public attention is increasingly intense as professional teams continue to extend their playing schedules. One of the biggest challenges facing female athletes, Bouris said, is to stay in the spotlight.
However, the popularity of women’s sports has increased. And with the emergence of streaming opportunities and the rise of social media platforms, Bouris said it’s the right time for the launch of new leagues, like Unrivaled.
“We’ve seen a major shift here in the attention, focus and popularity of women’s sports,” Bouris said. “Some will say it’s taken a long time, but this train has been on this track, and in the case of the WNBA, for over 25 years. It’s maturing a little bit as a sport, and we’ve seen a growing popularity, growing media interest and growing sponsor interest.
Jeremi Duru, professor of law and director of the sports institute at the American University of Washington School of Law, said the new league provides more opportunities for female athletes in the United States, which will ultimately , will lead to more achievements and success for women’s sports. a set.
“Inequity in professional sports is rooted in history,” said Duru, who has written books and worked at the intersection of sports, race and gender for two decades. “Women’s sporting ambitions have been suppressed on all fronts and in all kinds of sports. This has created less involvement of women in professional athletics in this country than men.
Duru said he disagreed with the common argument that there is no viable market for women’s sport because it attracts less public interest.
“What we have observed over the past few decades… certainly with Title IX – is that when you provide opportunity, interest and success follows,” Duru said. “Women’s sport is booming, and it’s thriving because opportunities are being created. »
However, perceptions continue to catch up. Collier told ESPN that a lot of young college players say they would rather be in college than come to the WNBA: “Women’s basketball is kind of the only place where that happens. … So we definitely want to try to change that.
For Collier and Stewart, that starts with building a path to financial security that doesn’t involve traveling abroad. Griner’s detention for much of 2022 was a grim reminder of the problems WNBA players can encounter overseas.
Mark Conrad, director of the Sports Business Initiative at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, said safety concerns, language barriers and the ever-present threat of racism pose considerable challenges when playing sports. ‘stranger.
“Given what happened with Brittney Griner, it’s obvious that overseas safety could be a concern for players,” Conrad said. “But another thing that I think hasn’t been written about enough is that a good percentage of players who play overseas are African-American. And the reception that some of these athletes receive in other countries is a kind of open racism.”
Conrad said many family-related considerations also arise when you have to spend months abroad, especially for those expecting children or who have young families with school or childcare needs.
Green, who has been the head women’s basketball coach at Hamilton College for more than five years, said women shouldn’t have to choose between being a mother or a professional basketball player.
“These women train and work just as hard as their male counterparts and deserve to have their families enjoy watching them play,” Green said. “As a mother of two, I feel like I’ve been fortunate enough to not have to choose, but I love that my young daughters can watch their mothers train and be around young women positive things that they can admire and say: ‘I want to be like them one day.
Collier, who stopped playing overseas after giving birth to her first child in 2022, said another main motivation in creating the league came from the difficulties players faced navigating guarding. children abroad. Stewart told ESPN that the idea for the new league began to come together when she found out her wife was expecting their second child in the fall.
“Stewie and I both have daughters,” Collier tweeted. “It’s our responsibility to show them, and all the young girls who look up to us, that sometimes you don’t have to wait your turn. You can either beg for a seat at the table or build your own table. We build our own table.
