Sep 22, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) drives past Atlanta Dream guard Maya Caldwell (33) during game one of the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

It is that time of year when seasoned WNBA fans must defend the investment and potential profitability in the league from trolls and outsiders who have yet to learn the history and evolution of the league.

These cries seem especially loud currently from a small faction of “so-called” fans that feel the playoffs “will be empty” and “no one will watch” without Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. However, this statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

As the WNBA semi-finals started this past Sunday featuring the former 2023 champions the Las Vegas Aces at the New York Liberty to viewership numbers that delivered the most watched semi-final in 22 years up 60% from the 2023 reason.

The rivalry matchup and unfinished business from last year’s finals drew 929,000 average viewers and peaked at 1.2 million viewers overall.

Similarly, the WNBA is often misunderstood in terms of its investment and profitability. Thus, it is important to situate the history of the league and the factors that are influencing the future growth of the league as it secures new media rights deals and as the players’ union positions come to the table with a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in 2025.

First, it is imperative when comparing the WNBA to other professional sports leagues in the United States to ensure context is being situated. The WNBA was founded in 1996 and began play in 1997 with eight teams, now only four of the original teams remain (NY Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, with the Utah Starzz becoming the Las Vegas Aces in 2018). Currently, the league sits with 12 teams with the announcement of three more teams by 2026 with the additions of the Golden State Valkyries in 2025, and a team in Portland and Toronto by 2026.

The W is celebrating its 28th year in 2024. For context, MLB saw its start in 1903, the NHL in 1917, the NBA in 1949, and the NFL in 1920 with the version we know today beginning in 1970 with the merger of the NFL and former American Football League (AFL).  Thus, in terms of professional sports leagues in the US, the W is still rather young with only its counterparts in soccer having a similar timeline (MLS was founded in 1995 and the NWSL in 2012 with previous iterations starting as early as 2001).

Despite situating the timeline and the youth of the W as a pro sports league in comparison to its peers, the question for trolls always remains ‘Is the WNBA profitable?’ For starters, no business simply starts without a significant amount of investment and an understanding that reaping the benefits of that investment takes time.

Investment has long been a staple in the men’s side of professional sports in the US. When the MLB, NHL, NBA, and NFL started they did not immediately generate profits. Instead, these leagues became the revenue-generating juggernauts they are today due to incremental growth in media rights deals, merchandising, and ticket sales.

For example, the NFL’s first televised game happened in 1939 when NBC aired a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Brooklyn Dodgers on two affiliate stations in the state of New York. Throughout the next several decades more and more media members began to enter the sports television space and put NFL games on a multitude of regional channels/networks and eventually the national and international coverage that we know today. As television itself became popular and more readily available in American households so did the NFL with the first Monday Night Football game airing on ABC in 1970.

This shows that the NFL and the popularity of watching football in the US has had 85 years to become the media titan it is today with each of its 32 teams being valued at more than $5 billion and the league generating an estimated $20 billion in revenue last year. Additionally, the NFL signed a new media rights deal with CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX, NBC, YouTube, and Amazon, where these media conglomerates will pay at least $125.5 billion through 2033 to broadcast the league’s regular season and playoff games.

Aug 30, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) drives to the basket against Chicago Sky guard Lindsay Allen (15) during the first half at Wintrust Arena.
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

If we take the NBA as another example, from 1967-68 to 1970-71 – year 22 to year 25 – NBA revenue doubled from $111 million to $220 million. The NBA started this time period with 12 teams and finished with 17. The NBA continued to grow throughout the 1970s but their explosion in attendance happened in the late 1980s. This growth in attendance directly correlates to the consistent coverage on television that began in the 1980s. Fast forward to today, the NBA announced that it will air all nationally televised games from the 2025-2026 season to the 2035-2036 season with platforms Disney (ABC and ESPN), Comcast (NBC and Peacock), and Amazon making the NBA roughly $76 billion.

When we look at the WNBA from year 23 to 27, similar to the NBA in the late 60s and early 70s, the W’s revenue doubled from $100 million to $200 million from 2019-2023, all while only having 12 teams and encountering a global pandemic. Additionally, in 2022, the W raised $75 million from new investors, existing WNBA and NBA owners, and former players such as Swin Cash, Baron Davis, and Pau Gasol.

In 2020, the WNBA’s players union saw a monumental win when the adopted CBA nearly doubled salaries for the top WNBA players from $118,000 to the potential supermax of $240,000 in 2024. For context, the average salary for the WNBA in its inception was $28,000 and a max of $50,000.

However, at this same time, the league only distributes roughly 10% of its revenue back to the players. Something unheard of in the current landscape of their counterpart the NBA, where players receive 50% of a revenue share with the league. The W’s CBA is open to renegotiation in 2025, and revenue share will certainly be an area emphasized and centered in the conversation. In an interview with The Residency Podcast and highlighted by Just Women’s Sports, Aces player Kelsey Plum stated, “We’re not asking to get paid what the men get paid. We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared.”

Currently, the media rights deal for the WNBA is valued at around $60 million per year and is set to expire after the 2025 season. For example, ION, owned by Scripps Sports pays $13 million annually to broadcast up to 25 games per year through the 2025 season.

Most recently, the WNBA negotiated alongside the NBA for a media rights deal where the NBA decided the evaluation for the WNBA in their collective deal was $2.2 billion. This deal allows for a price reevaluation after the 2028 season. But executive director of the players WNBA players union Terri Jackson has stated that the current evaluation is under-valuing the league, “We look forward to learning how the NBA arrived at a $200 million valuation — if initial reports are accurate or even close,” Jackson said. “Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, the players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand, and that the fans keep showing up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”

Jackson’s sentiments are echoed by longtime researcher and economist Dr. David Berri of Southern Utah University, “We should also note that going forward, all statements about the WNBA’s lack of profitability must be regarded as completely meaningless for sure. The NBA just negotiated a $76 billion media deal and arbitrarily decided the WNBA gets $2.2 billion of this amount. That $2.2 billion was not a result of market negotiations. The NBA simply decided that’s what they get. If the NBA is now choosing the revenue numbers, they can’t also decide that profits don’t exist.”

Berri has written several books over the past few decades looking at the revenue generation of multiple sports leagues in the United States, and most recently wrote a book Slaying the Trolls! Why the Trolls are Very, Very Wrong About Women and Sport alongside his co-author and fellow academic Dr. Nefertiti Walker, situating how myths about women’s sports continue to be perpetuated.

According to Berri, the recent attendance and viewership spikes that have been trending for the past five years, and exploded this year, point to the continued growth and revenue generation of the league, but also women’s basketball as a whole. He said, “I think we must note that what we saw with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese is also a product of the networks changing how they cover women’s college basketball. It is not a coincidence I think that we suddenly discovered major stars in women’s college basketball right when women’s college basketball started being broadcasted on a major network (ESPN).”

For Berri, the hope for the WNBA is bright as the pattern that was noted in the 1980s for the NBA is being mirrored in the WNBA today where consistent coverage on television increases attendance, digital content and engagement, and more media members and sponsors wanting to engage, invest, and profit off the W.

About Allison Smith

Dr. Allison Smith is a former Division I and II softball student athlete who is now an assistant professor of sport administration who studies and writes about the current state of women in sport. Outside of writing about women in sport, Allison has taught sport management and marketing courses for over ten years at various undergraduate and graduate programs. Follow Allison on Twitter @allisonbsmith15.