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 going through a season on the brink proper as its stakeholders felt it had begun to collect momentum.
In conversations with league homeowners and gamers, Engelbert sensed in these early weeks of the pandemic the strain over what was at stake. With no 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 would have made it, but I do know we wouldn’t be where we are today without having had that highly competitive 22-game season in 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 scores are up. So is attendance. The league is using a growth 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 about to begin in 2026.
LIBERTY LEVELS UP 🗽
The #WNBAFinals offered by @YouTubeTV is now tied at 1-1! Recreation 3 is about 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 standard 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 net 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 workforce homeowners as an vital springboard. “I think it was one of the best decisions made in the history 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 vital, 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 elevate that has helped supercharge its attain and recognition. It didn’t have to return in from the shadows to take action. If not for that window of time, stakeholders say, the WNBA may not 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 workforce homeowners. As she went across the nation, visiting all 12 markets, she heard an analogous chorus. After practically 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 based mostly on a easy thought: “Go big or go home.” The league, they advised her, wanted extra capital.
There was no consensus on how a lot. Simply that it wanted extra to develop. Engelbert sought views from influential individuals round her. When she met Kobe Bryant late that 12 months, she mentioned he requested what the WNBA wanted. Engelbert handed alongside the will 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 personal fairness agency. “At the time, we really needed that infusion of capital,” Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai mentioned.
It was a brand new method by the WNBA. The NBA had helped rise up the league over its first two-plus a long time in existence, however now it sought cash from different sources. The WNBA was quick on assets and manpower. It wanted investments to place into advertising and marketing and model constructing, digital innovation and to drive extra income.
A 12 months later, it closed a $75 million capital elevate that got here with a $475 million post-money valuation for the WNBA. Michael Dell and Nike have been the biggest traders, in keeping with one supply with information of the elevate who was not approved to talk publicly concerning the settlement. Nike invested $25 million, in keeping with a number of league and trade sources. Nike declined to remark. Engelbert didn’t dispute that quantity when requested however mentioned the sneaker firm was a pure companion.
“Nike called and wanted to make a substantial investment because part of their strategy was to double down on women’s sports,” she mentioned.
Traders within the capital elevate took a roughly 16 p.c stake within the league, with WNBA homeowners and NBA homeowners every splitting the remaining in half, and took most popular fairness. That offers them a precedence return on their funding with a 5 p.c dividend, mentioned one particular person with information of the capital elevate 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, in addition they have two observers on the Board of Governors.
“I was just intrigued that there was this league where the quality of the players is so great,” Karen Finerman, Metropolitan Capital CEO and a WNBA investor, mentioned. “And yet the league was struggling.”
The WNBA’s monetary state of affairs has improved since then, and high-ranking executives and homeowners level to the elevate as a motive. It helped supercharge the league’s progress and put the WNBA in a spot the place it may reap the benefits of the surge in recognition since 2020.
Elevated globalization was introduced as one of many makes use of of the cash. After taking part in a number of exhibition video games in Canada, a Toronto enlargement workforce will start play in 2026. Engelbert mentioned the league wish to play video games on varied 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 elevate, revamping its app and web site. That change additionally helped with its advertising and marketing 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 and marketing division to round two dozen staff there. The league employed its first chief advertising and marketing officer in December 2020.
“If we weren’t already making incremental progress in our business, then the moment that we’re experiencing right now would not be as big as it is,” Dallas Wings CEO and president Greg Bibb mentioned.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert took a “go big or go home” method to operating the league. (David L. Nemec / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)
Engelbert believed the capital elevate 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 corporation 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.
“Nobody wanted to touch it,” Wu Tsai mentioned.
Nonetheless, the Tsais discovered the franchise enticing. They acknowledged the facility of New York as a media market and knew how a lot town beloved basketball. They believed there was a fan base simply ready to be reinvigorated.
Coming into the finals, New York has been re-energized and is considered across the league as one of many franchises chargeable for elevating the bar. (Earlier than the WNBA applied full constitution journey this season, the Liberty have been fined a league-record $500,000 for chartering their gamers through 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 report for the Liberty and the Nets. Attendance is as much as a mean of practically 13,000 followers per Liberty house recreation, up 64 p.c from final 12 months. They’ve 53 sponsors, up practically 61 p.c 12 months over 12 months, with income generated from such partnerships up 68 p.c. Wu Tsai mentioned the franchise is heading within the course of profitability.
“I couldn’t be happier about the demand for tickets for our games, the interest from sponsors and the viewership,” Wu Tsai mentioned.
SOLD OUT DATES 🤩
Big shoutout to our Libs Fam for displaying 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 thrice this season as a mirrored image of exploding curiosity, with indicators pointing to a different report 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 report $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 focusing 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 enviornment. “It just changes the game for us,” Bibb mentioned.
The Chicago Sky, led by rookie Angel Reese, have skilled an analogous upswing.
“We now have breathing room. Revenue is good. Growing the top line is good. People coming to games and selling out arenas, that’s fantastic,” co-owner and working chairperson Nadia Rawlinson mentioned. “What has happened over the last 18 months has been nothing short of 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 not too long ago unveiled new amenities.
“Practice facilities are going to just quickly become table stakes,” Rawlinson mentioned. “I think it will be something most franchises, if not all, will have over the next five years.”
She’s not alone in that perception. Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder mentioned she believes that in 5 years each franchise may have its personal follow facility. If that involves fruition, will probably be another instance of how far the league has come.
“This was a leap (from) many years where people thought, is this going to be sustainable?” mentioned Joe Soper, the governor for the Connecticut Solar. “Are there going to be teams choosing to fold or sell or relocate and just trying to get out because they don’t know if financially it’s going to have the support, even though the talent is there on the court. Now you’re getting this visibility, and everybody gets to see the talent and the growth.”
The WNBA has seen franchise valuations leap, and Engelbert mentioned she thinks they may proceed to rise “considerably.” It’s a stark distinction from a half-decade in the past when franchises have been offered at values within the single-digit thousands and thousands. Mark Davis, The Athletic reported in 2022, purchased the Las Vegas Aces for a little bit greater than $2 million.
This 12 months, the league drew an all-in payment 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 value the Golden State Warriors possession group to purchase in with the Valkyries.
GO DEEPER
How the Golden State Valkyries advertising and marketing themselves as the brand new WNBA enlargement franchise
This previous season, WNBA video games averaged a report 1.19 million viewers on ESPN platforms in contrast with a mean of 1.56 million viewers tuning in to look at NBA regular-season video games throughout ABC, ESPN and TNT. And heading into the finals, the playoffs had been essentially the most considered in 25 years. The league’s new media deal — price $2.2 billion over 11 years, and doubtlessly extra if it lands further media companions, because it expects — may assist carry valuations even increased. There was a lot optimistic momentum, Engelbert mentioned, that the league determined to pause the seek for its sixteenth workforce 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 in every of a number of methods the WNBA has needed to reorient itself on the fly.
“It’s interesting to talk today about where we are, but I think it’s changing so rapidly, and everything’s changing in the W,” Engelbert mentioned. “I tell my team, everything’s changed, so don’t base this on last year because everything changed this year and how we should be thinking about what’s next for us.”
The subsequent few years will proceed to mould 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 increased salaries at a time when the WNBA has needed to take care of criticism that they aren’t being paid sufficient. Groups, after a long time of dropping 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 gained’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 earnings the league distributes will hit groups by means of a waterfall course of, although workforce homeowners will get the biggest share.
However there’s a perception throughout the league that the WNBA is getting into a unique stage. Its latest prosperity, its stakeholders say, ought to develop into regular.
“This is the new baseline,” Rawlinson mentioned.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photograph: Bruce Bennett/ Getty Pictures)
