Is the WNBA getting shortchanged on its latest media rights deal?
The WNBA’s All-Star weekend tips off tonight. Meanwhile, the league’s rising popularity is set to be rewarded in a new media rights deal.
The WNBA is reportedly closing in on an 11-year, $2.2 billion agreement to broadcast games with NBC, Amazon and Disney. That pencils out to more than three times the league’s current annual media rights income.
But the head of the player’s union is among those concerned the deal could be selling the league short.
After a few years of booming viewership and the arrival of 2024’s superstar rookie class, the WNBA was in a good spot to make gains.
“I think it’s just a cumulative moment where all the forces are aligned to take advantage,” said La Quita Frederick, an expert on the business of sports at Georgetown. The revenue boost will help the league invest in reaching new fans.
But some worry that even the $2.2 billion valuation doesn’t match the league’s potential.
“Are these networks really betting on women’s sports,” asks Alicia Jessop, a professor of sport administration at Pepperdine. The NBA, which owns more than half of the WNBA, brokered the agreement as part of its own media rights deal.
And until the WNBA negotiates independently, said Jessop, “We don’t know what the pure value of WNBA rights are.”
If the deal does become undervalued, it reportedly includes a promise for the partners to come back to the table early.