A group that includes an old Milwaukee Bucks The owner Marc Lasry, Fran Harris, Jenny Just and the NBA star, Kevin Durant, officially submitted an offer to own an WNBA extension team in Austin, Texas, USA TODAY SPORTS learned from two people with a direct knowledge of the offer.
They asked for anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the group’s offer.
Lasry is the main funder and provides professional sports property experience to the group. Harris, who also played university basketball in Texas and played two seasons of the WNBA, is an entrepreneur and previously expressed his interest in bringing a WNBA team to Austin. He is just the co-founder and partner Director of Fintech Firm Peak6, whose headquarters are in Austin. During is an All-Star for the Phoenix Suns And played a university basketball season in Texas.
WNBA has received more than 10 offers For an expansion team, which would increase the number of teams to 16. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that she would like to add the 16th team by the 2028 season.
The offers were due on January 30, and Detroit, Nashville, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Houston are among the cities for the expansion team. Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Houston offers were submitted by NBA ownership groups in these cities.
The Golden State Valkyries expansion will join the WNBA in 2025, and the Toronto and Portland tempo will join the League in 2026.
The ownership of the WNBA has transformed into precious and valid investments due to the increase in attendance and popularity, television ratings and a new television agreement with Disney (ABC / ESPN), Prime Video and NBC Universal.
Harris is the author, entrepreneur, television personality, entertainment producer and is deeply invested in Austin. She had connected to Durant and then started looking for other partners. She had identified Lasry as a potential partner before meeting, and her name continued to appear in conversations, a person who has knowledge of the Bid Austin group told USA.
Lasry and Harris met at a sports industry conference in New York in November, dinner and continued to discuss an extension offer from Austin WNBA.
Lasry was part of the group that bought the Bucks for $ 550 million in 2014, and it sold its 25% share in Jimmy Haslam at 3.5 billion dollars – more than $ 800 million in Lasry, co -founder Avenue Capital Group, investment capital and investment business.
During Lasry property, the Bucks built a new training installation, New Arena, won an NBA championship and helped reshape the downtown Milwaukee downtown. He has solid links throughout the League and has experience with local business leaders and elected officials.
The group’s offer includes plans for a new training installation and plans to play home games at Moody Center. The group appreciates the commitment of the city and the region towards women’s basketball and includes the commercial opportunities of a professional sports franchise in Austin.
During explored various investment opportunities in and outside sports, and the NBA 2023 collective agreement between the League and the players allows the NBA players to hold a maximum of 4% of a WNBA which has no affiliation with an NBA team.
The fees for this expansion franchise could bring in as much $ 200 million.
This article originally appeared on USA Today: Extension of WNBA: Austin subjects an offer for a new team
