The league’s current media rights deals were set to expire after the 2025 season, and the NBA, which owns about 60 percent of the WNBA, has been negotiating new deals, which have yet to be formalized. The WNBA’s current media rights were valued at about $60 million annually, and the new structure would be in the $200 million annual range. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said this spring that she hopes to at least double the league’s annual rights revenue as interest grows, and those terms would more than triple.
“‘If you build it, they will come,’” Engelbert said at the time, has come to light now that everyone is talking about the WNBA. “One of the things we wanted was an active free agency system, and we got it, right? Last year, there were huge free-agent moves, and that creates excitement, it creates household names. It creates rivalries. It creates super teams. And that’s what you want in a league because that’s what makes people watch, and that’s what drives the value of your media rights or your corporate partnerships or your franchise valuation.”
The revenue boost will have a significant impact on the league’s finances at a time when interest in the league and women’s sports in general continues to grow. The WNBA’s players are expected to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement after this year, which would end the deal after the 2025 season and allow the league and its players to negotiate a new agreement detailing everything from salary caps to benefits and other financial details. Nearly every player in the league who isn’t on an entry-level contract is being signed to short-term deals in anticipation of a new, increased salary structure. The league will also add two expansion teams over the next two years.
The NBA’s media rights deals are reportedly worth about $76 billion over 11 years, and some have criticized the arrangement under which the WNBA’s rights were negotiated in collaboration with the NBA. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Engelbert have rejected the idea.
“It’s a huge advantage for us to be in the market with the NBA,” Engelbert said this spring. “Especially with streaming services that are based on a 12-month subscription model. If we’re only there for 4 1/2 months … how attractive is that? But we and the NBA are probably the only sports entities that can offer 330 days of live programming — almost the entire year. That’s incredibly valuable for a subscription platform.”
Terry Jackson, executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, still has questions about the alleged structure of the deal.
“We have wondered for months how the NBA would value the WNBA in its media rights deal,” Jackson said in a statement Wednesday. “With a $75 billion deal on the table, the league controls its own destiny. More specifically, the NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA. We look forward to learning how the NBA reached its $200 million deal.” [annual] “Valuation – if the initial reports are accurate or close to that. The NBA and WNBA cannot deny that in the past few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand, and fans continue to show up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”