The Women’s National Basketball Association has had a problem on its hands for years that culminated in one of the most talked about stories in the American public.
When Brittany Griner was arrested in Russia while playing there during the WNBA offseason, questions were asked of why a professional athlete in the United States needed to go abroad in the first place.
While WNBA salaries have improved over the years, they have not set the players up for the long-term in the way that salaries in Europe during the offseason have.
That could all be about to change.
Unrivaled, a 30-player 3×3 short-format basketball league for professional players, is looking to reshape the offseason for these athletes, offering six-figure salaries to keep the stars of the WNBA at home.
Co-founded by women’s basketball stars Breanna Stewart, of New York Liberty, and Napheesa Collier (main picture), of Minnesota Lynx, the player-driven league is set to get under way in early 2025 backed by sports stars, media executives and celebrity investors after more than two years of planning.
With just six months until launch, the league is looking to commercialise. And quickly, with inbound calls from sponsors looking to get in on the action. Unrivaled has already secured its first seven-figure annual sponsorship deal and expects several more in that range.
“The focal point for us right now is going out in the market. All the conversations to-date have been inbound, we’re ready to go outbound,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell tells SportBusiness. “We’re investing in the women. We are paying them top-dollar. These are historic contracts, and we’re proud of where we stand with the players both on short-term compensation, long-term equity ownership and having upside of this growth. It’s a lot more viable for us to go to brands and ask for that same sentiment in return because it is a return but it’s also an investment.”
Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E) is selling sponsorship for the league with co-chief executive and co-founder David Levy part of the ‘hands-on approach’. HS&E is actively looking for a title or presenting sponsor for the league, which will provide high visibility for brands through on-court signage opportunities, LEDs along the perimeter, branded content and product integrations.
The league is producing games itself with an as-yet-unnamed partner on the site of a 1,000-seat arena to be built in a studio in Miami, Florida, helping lower costs.
Unrivaled is strategically playing during the build up to the post-season for college basketball and in the heat of mid-season NBA, when the basketball buzz will be at its loudest in the US.
What’s more, its launch in January will come off the back of the Paris Olympic Games where the US women’s team will be looking to defend the 3×3 gold medal won in Tokyo, when the short-format discipline made its Olympics debut.
Coupled with that is the fact that more eyes are on the WNBA than ever before largely thanks to the arrival of the TV ratings magnet Caitlin Clark as part of a star-studded rookie class.
The WNBA, and women’s basketball at large, is at an “inflection point,” Levy says, and Unrivaled believes it can take advantage.
“Viewership is growing double and triple digit, not single digit. We’re also seeing attendance grow with bodies in seats and season tickets, and betting is on a huge rise in women’s sports, which I think is attributing to the viewership growth,” Levy tells SportBusiness.
“The most important factor, however, is shifting of brand dollars to women’s sports because they’ve been blocked out of men’s sports or maybe men’s sports got too pricey. This is an opportunity to buy a dollar stock that you know is going to be $10 [€9.36] in two years.
“Media companies are looking for quality content that they can sell, brands are looking for places to put their money and viewership and attendance are growing and betting is happening. I think we’re at this incredible inflection point certainly in basketball but you’re seeing it also in soccer and volleyball and many other women’s sports.”
US women’s basketball has been on a steady upward trend over the past five years with more attention behind college basketball’s post-season tournament stars heading to the WNBA. With Clark’s record-setting viewership on her WNBA debut, the league has reaped the same rewards, and brands want to get in on the action.
“When you think about women’s sports, there’s ROI now,” Bazzell says. “When you think about the market, there’s still very few spots to get integrated. The NWSL and WNBA have been great, they’ve been growing, you have college basketball growing. Our number one advantage at Unrivaled is there’s limited opportunity for networks and brands to get involved and I think that’s why we have seen such inbound interest.”
Former ESPN president John Skipper, who is a co-founder of Meadowlark Media, is working with Levy to secure the league’s media rights. Levy, who is also the former president of Turner, says that anything from direct-to-consumer, to single media partner, to a multi-partner broadcast deal is possible.
Having the best players in the WNBA is a great selling point for the league, something that other alternative leagues, such as Athletes Unlimited, have not quite been able to crack despite being a viable off-season domestic opportunity for WNBA players.
Another attractive selling point of Unrivaled for media companies, proponents claim, is the length of games, which will be one hour long and given two-hour blocks that make programming easy for broadcasters.
On the likely broadcast picture, Levy explains: “Obviously reach is one of the key factors as you grow a ‘new league’ into the marketplace, but I put quotations on new league because most new leagues start with names nobody knows.
“We’re starting a new league with every single one our players having a huge following and are still playing the best of the best in the WNBA. We have to fish where the fishes are. Streaming services are popular.”
The WNBA, whose national media rights contracts end after the 2025 season, will no doubt impact the rights deal for Unrivaled as the increased deal value raises the potential for the new league.
It is expected that some of the WNBA rights will be connected to the NBA’s again, such as the two leagues’ deals with ESPN, but the women’s league does have its own domestic deals with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, CBS Sports and Scripps’ Sports ION.
Either way, an increase in the WNBA’s next TV rights deal will trickle down through the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the players association and the league for contract values. The current league minimum in the WNBA is $64,154 with a maximum of $241,984.
Unrivaled is paying players six-figures salaries and providing ownership equity separate from that salary. Contracts will range from single-season agreements to multi-year deals.
“This is going to be a league owned by the players,” Bazzell notes. “What every player in every league and every sport strives for is ownership… We’re building a media company, not just a league. It gets into social media, merchandise and incentivises these players to get into something larger than just showing up, practicing, playing and going home.”