In spring 2020, because the COVID-19 pandemic upended the nation, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was locked down in her New Jersey house. The league was dealing with a season on the brink proper as its stakeholders felt it had begun to assemble momentum.
In conversations with league house owners and gamers, Engelbert sensed in these early weeks of the pandemic the strain over what was at stake. With out a season, the league confronted what she later known as an “existential” second concerning the prospect of going darkish for 20 months.
“I don’t know if we might have made it, however I do know we wouldn’t be the place we’re in the present day with out having had that extremely aggressive 22-game season within the bubble,” Engelbert mentioned.
4 years after the “Wubble,” the league is celebrating the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx as a capstone to its most profitable 12 months. The WNBA has by no means been in a greater place. Tv rankings are up. So is attendance. The league is using a increase in curiosity and expertise, pushed by the regular excellence of longtime stars like A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, and the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Three enlargement groups have already been named and one other is anticipated. A profitable new media deal is ready to start out in 2026.
LIBERTY LEVELS UP 🗽
The #WNBAFinals introduced by @YouTubeTV is now tied at 1-1! Recreation 3 is ready for Wednesday at 8pm/ET in Minneapolis 🔥 pic.twitter.com/sZOjIZSZZW
— WNBA (@WNBA) October 13, 2024
The progress has not been with out its rising pains. For years, WNBA gamers pushed for personal constitution flights for groups touring between video games — a typical follow for his or her friends within the NBA and most different main skilled sports activities leagues — earlier than the league granted them this season. Occasional high-profile video games have been moved due to scheduling conflicts, and followers have voiced frustration about merchandise and broadcast accessibility. Engelbert obtained criticism from gamers, together with an admonishment from the gamers’ union, final month for what they mentioned was an insufficient public response to the web harassment and abuse many mentioned they’ve obtained this season. The union has additionally routinely known as for extra transparency from the league on its funds and operations.
However the league stays on the ascent, and the selection to play in 2020 has been hailed by crew house owners as an necessary springboard. “I believe it was among the best selections made within the historical past of this league,” Seattle Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel mentioned.
That call saved the WNBA within the consciousness of followers and created a strengthened participant physique. As necessary, it continued to generate income by way of media rights and company partnerships.
A number of months after the conclusion of the 2020 season, the WNBA made one other selection that considerably affected its trajectory. It started a capital increase that has helped supercharge its attain and recognition. It didn’t have to come back in from the shadows to take action. If not for that window of time, stakeholders say, the WNBA won’t be the place it’s now.
Earlier than Engelbert took over because the WNBA’s first official commissioner in 2019 — the league was beforehand run by presidents — she needed to interview with the league’s crew house owners. As she went across the nation, visiting all 12 markets, she heard the same chorus. After almost three a long time of looking for its footing, the WNBA’s energy brokers had determined it was time to develop. The plan, Engelbert mentioned, was primarily based on a easy thought: “Go large or go house.” The league, they instructed her, wanted extra capital.
There was no consensus on how a lot. Simply that it wanted extra to develop. Engelbert sought views from influential folks round her. When she met Kobe Bryant late that 12 months, she mentioned he requested what the WNBA wanted. Engelbert handed alongside the need for extra capital and floated $50 million as a goal. That quantity turned out to be a fraction of what it later obtained from traders.
In early 2021, the WNBA put out a pitch deck to traders. The method was pushed, partially, by the Liberty’s possession group, which additionally owns the Brooklyn Nets and Blue Pool Capital, a non-public fairness agency. “On the time, we actually wanted that infusion of capital,” Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai mentioned.
It was a brand new method by the WNBA. The NBA had helped get up the league over its first two-plus a long time in existence, however now it sought cash from different sources. The WNBA was brief on assets and manpower. It wanted investments to place into advertising and model constructing, digital innovation and to drive extra income.
A 12 months later, it closed a $75 million capital increase that got here with a $475 million post-money valuation for the WNBA. Michael Dell and Nike had been the biggest traders, in line with one supply with data of the increase who was not approved to talk publicly concerning the settlement. Nike invested $25 million, in line with a number of league and business sources. Nike declined to remark. Engelbert didn’t dispute that quantity when requested however mentioned the sneaker firm was a pure companion.
“Nike known as and needed to make a considerable funding as a result of a part of their technique was to double down on girls’s sports activities,” she mentioned.
Traders within the capital increase took a roughly 16 % stake within the league, with WNBA house owners and NBA house owners every splitting the remainder in half, and took most well-liked fairness. That offers them a precedence return on their funding with a 5 % dividend, mentioned one particular person with data of the capital increase who was granted anonymity as a result of the particular person didn’t have the authority to talk publicly concerning the league’s monetary construction. Although they’ve non-voting shares within the league, additionally they have two observers on the Board of Governors.
“I used to be simply intrigued that there was this league the place the standard of the gamers is so nice,” Karen Finerman, Metropolitan Capital CEO and a WNBA investor, mentioned. “And but the league was struggling.”
The WNBA’s monetary state of affairs has improved since then, and high-ranking executives and house owners level to the increase as a motive. It helped supercharge the league’s progress and put the WNBA in a spot the place it might make the most of the surge in recognition since 2020.
Elevated globalization was introduced as one of many makes use of of the cash. After enjoying a number of exhibition video games in Canada, a Toronto enlargement crew will start play in 2026. Engelbert mentioned the league wish to play video games on numerous continents. Final week, she singled out Mexico Metropolis for its curiosity in internet hosting competitors. The WNBA has additionally undergone a digital transformation after the increase, revamping its app and web site. That change additionally helped with its advertising efforts, as did will increase in promotional and paid media campaigns.
Human capital was one other space the place the cash was allotted. When Engelbert took over as commissioner, the WNBA had roughly 12 staff, she mentioned. It nonetheless works out of the NBA’s midtown Manhattan workplaces, however now it has greater than 60. It has gone from what Engelbert mentioned was a one-person advertising division to round two dozen staff there. The league employed its first chief advertising officer in December 2020.
“If we weren’t already making incremental progress in our enterprise, then the second that we’re experiencing proper now wouldn’t be as large as it’s,” Dallas Wings CEO and president Greg Bibb mentioned.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert took a “go large or go house” method to operating the league. (David L. Nemec / NBAE by way of Getty Photos)
Engelbert believed the capital increase additionally confirmed the WNBA might be a progress property. That wasn’t at all times the case for groups across the league.
When Wu Tsai and her husband, Joe Tsai, purchased the Liberty in January 2019, they bought a company she mentioned was a distressed asset. James Dolan, the franchise’s first and then-only proprietor, put the Liberty on the market in November 2017, and moved it out of Madison Sq. Backyard a season later and into Westchester County Heart, the place they performed for 2 seasons.
“No one needed to the touch it,” Wu Tsai mentioned.
However, the Tsais discovered the franchise enticing. They acknowledged the ability of New York as a media market and knew how a lot the town cherished basketball. They believed there was a fan base simply ready to be reinvigorated.
Getting into the finals, New York has been re-energized and is seen across the league as one of many franchises liable for elevating the bar. (Earlier than the WNBA carried out full constitution journey this season, the Liberty had been fined a league-record $500,000 for chartering their gamers throughout the second half of 2021.)
They reshaped the roster and the enterprise, too. In New York’s opener in opposition to the Indiana Fever, it recorded $175,000 in merchandise gross sales, a single-game document for the Liberty and the Nets. Attendance is as much as a median of almost 13,000 followers per Liberty house sport, up 64 % from final 12 months. They’ve 53 sponsors, up almost 61 % 12 months over 12 months, with income generated from such partnerships up 68 %. Wu Tsai mentioned the franchise is heading within the route of profitability.
“I couldn’t be happier concerning the demand for tickets for our video games, the curiosity from sponsors and the viewership,” Wu Tsai mentioned.
SOLD OUT DATES 🤩
Enormous shoutout to our Libs Fam for exhibiting up and out for a Recreation 2 win @barclayscenter 🗽 pic.twitter.com/KjNlFBzCWN
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) October 13, 2024
They aren’t alone, in fact. Clark has served as an accelerant in a record-setting 12 months for the Fever (and league extra broadly). The Wings rebudgeted their ticket income 3 times this season as a mirrored image of exploding curiosity, with indicators pointing to a different document 12 months subsequent season, Bibb mentioned. They set merchandise data and added extra companions, ones who aren’t simply native but additionally nationwide and worldwide manufacturers. They offered two half-percent possession stakes this summer time at a document $208 million valuation.
Transformations within the enterprise are also a part of what set the Wings up for a forthcoming transfer from Arlington to downtown Dallas. They’re concentrating on to start working in a brand new follow facility by the beginning of the 2026 season. The Dallas Memorial Auditorium is present process a renovation and can function their house area. “It simply adjustments the sport for us,” Bibb mentioned.
The Chicago Sky, led by rookie Angel Reese, have skilled the same upswing.
“We now have respiration room. Income is nice. Rising the highest line is nice. Folks coming to video games and promoting out arenas, that’s implausible,” co-owner and working chairperson Nadia Rawlinson mentioned. “What has occurred over the past 18 months has been nothing wanting extraordinary.”
A franchise-specific 40,000-square-foot follow facility is on the best way in Chicago. The Sky broke floor on their new facility Oct. 9 with plans to open earlier than the 2026 season. They be part of Phoenix, Seattle and Las Vegas as franchises which have all lately unveiled new services.
“Observe services are going to only rapidly develop into desk stakes,” Rawlinson mentioned. “I believe it will likely be one thing most franchises, if not all, can have over the subsequent 5 years.”
She’s not alone in that perception. Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder mentioned she believes that in 5 years each franchise can have its personal follow facility. If that involves fruition, it will likely be yet another instance of how far the league has come.
“This was a leap (from) a few years the place folks thought, is that this going to be sustainable?” mentioned Joe Soper, the governor for the Connecticut Solar. “Are there going to be groups selecting to fold or promote or relocate and simply making an attempt to get out as a result of they don’t know if financially it’s going to have the assist, though the expertise is there on the courtroom. Now you’re getting this visibility, and everyone will get to see the expertise and the expansion.”
The WNBA has seen franchise valuations leap, and Engelbert mentioned she thinks they’ll proceed to rise “significantly.” It’s a stark distinction from a half-decade in the past when franchises had been offered at values within the single-digit thousands and thousands. Mark Davis, The Athletic reported in 2022, purchased the Las Vegas Aces for somewhat greater than $2 million.
This 12 months, the league drew an all-in price of $125 million for the enlargement franchise in Portland, greater than doubling not solely what the league sought in enlargement charges when it began but additionally what it price the Golden State Warriors possession group to purchase in with the Valkyries.
GO DEEPER
How the Golden State Valkyries advertising themselves as the brand new WNBA enlargement franchise
This previous season, WNBA video games averaged a document 1.19 million viewers on ESPN platforms in contrast with a median of 1.56 million viewers tuning in to observe NBA regular-season video games throughout ABC, ESPN and TNT. And heading into the finals, the playoffs had been essentially the most seen in 25 years. The league’s new media deal — price $2.2 billion over 11 years, and probably extra if it lands extra media companions, because it expects — might assist carry valuations even greater. There was a lot optimistic momentum, Engelbert mentioned, that the league determined to pause the seek for its sixteenth crew to reassess the place it stands and rent an funding banker to run it. She mentioned 10 to 12 cities are viable choices.
It’s one among a number of methods the WNBA has needed to reorient itself on the fly.
“It’s attention-grabbing to speak in the present day about the place we’re, however I believe it’s altering so quickly, and every part’s altering within the W,” Engelbert mentioned. “I inform my crew, every part’s modified, so don’t base this on final 12 months as a result of every part modified this 12 months and the way we ought to be fascinated with what’s subsequent for us.”
The following few years will proceed to mildew the league. The WNBPA is broadly anticipated to decide out of the present collective bargaining settlement, and there might be a brand new one in place in 2026, the identical 12 months the brand new media offers kick in. The brand new CBA will decide what quantity of income gamers and groups get.
Gamers have pushed for greater salaries at a time when the WNBA has needed to cope with criticism that they aren’t being paid sufficient. Groups, after a long time of shedding cash, are hoping to quickly crawl into the black. Valkyries president Jess Smith didn’t dismiss profitability within the franchise’s first season.
Although the WNBA’s new media deal is comparatively flush, it received’t all trickle all the way down to the groups in the identical approach it might within the NBA or NFL, which don’t have exterior traders. The revenue the league distributes will hit groups by means of a waterfall course of, although crew house owners will get the biggest share.
However there’s a perception throughout the league that the WNBA is getting into a distinct stage. Its latest prosperity, its stakeholders say, ought to develop into regular.
“That is the brand new baseline,” Rawlinson mentioned.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; picture: Bruce Bennett/ Getty Photos)
