By: Talia Black
November 24, 2024
Photo Credit; The Hollywood Reporter
With the recent meteoric rise in women’s basketball viewership, a new professional women’s 3-on-3 league called Unrivaled is set to tip off in January 2025. The league was founded last year by two WNBA stars coming off a matchup in this year’s Finals - Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx and Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty. However, as the inaugural Unrivaled season begins in the coming months, their jerseys will have new names across their chests and their WNBA teammates might become their rivals.
Many professional women’s basketball players find themselves overseas during the WNBA offseason to supplement the relatively low salaries they receive here in the U.S. playing basketball. The mission behind Unrivaled was to create an American-based league that gave players the opportunity to stay in the U.S. during the WNBA offseason while continuing to play basketball and make good money (Yahoo Sports). With key investments from prominent names including Carmelo Anthony, Geno Auriemma, Ashton Kutcher, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Steve Nash, Unrivaled aims to offer its players the highest average salary in U.S. women’s professional sports, rumored to be around $250,000 (Sports Illustrated). The total salary pool is said to be more than $8 million, with the players also receiving equity in the league for at least the first year, allowing them “the chance to earn significant money, not just now, but for years to come" (CBS Sports).
The season is set to be eight weeks long, starting on January 17, 2025 and running until mid March. The league is made up of six clubs each holding six roster spots for a total of 36 players across the league. (For the full roster list, see below.) Though they each have a unique team name, none of the clubs currently have geographical ties associated with them, but there are talks about the future sale and relocation of each team. This first year will be played entirely in Miami, Florida in their own facility created in partnership with media production company Mediapro North America. The facility is an existing 130,000 square foot space that will be refurbished to include a court, training facilities, childcare spaces, and a content creation area, located about seven miles from Miami International Airport. The 850-person arena capacity has definitely raised some eyebrows, but it seems this was decided due to scheduling conflicts with other basketball arenas in Miami along with the league’s calculated decision to prioritize viewership over ticket sales (Front Office Sports).
Unrivaled investors John Skipper (former ESPN president) and David Levy (former Turner Sports president) are at the helm of the league’s media rights and sponsorship sales, having spearheaded the media rights negotiations (Warner Bros. Discovery). Unrivaled has secured a multi-year media rights deal with TNT which includes a contract clause that would pay the league more based off of higher television ratings. Games will air on TNT and truTV and stream on Max. Despite the low arena capacity, Unrivaled will likely charge high prices for the chance to watch the action in person, making up for some of the lost ticket revenue (Front Office Sports).
Aside from the sizable contracts, players will be supported in various other ways. The league is providing local housing as well as access to gym and practice facilities (The Gist). Another money-making opportunity will be through the midseason 1-on-1 tournament, a single-elimination event in February during which the winner will earn an additional $250,000 check (CBS Sports).
Games will be structured with four 7-minute quarters played on a court about three-quarters the size of a regulation court with two baskets. This will look different for fans used to the FIBA 3x3 model, which is played on a half court with one basket. The roster selection process is quite unique in this new league too. On Nov. 20, rosters were decided by a selection committee of the six team coaches. Each signed player was grouped into a pod based on their position and skill level, and one player from each pod was then assigned to each club after the selection committee deliberated. There was a slight twist in this process; each of the six coaches - Phil Handy, Adam Harrington, Nola Henry, DJ Sackmann, Andrew Wade, and Teresa Weatherspoon - did not know which team and roster they would be paired with until after the selection process was finished, incentivizing all rosters to be competitively balanced. There are currently two “wildcard” roster spots still open, one on the Lunar Owls and the other on the Phantom, and will be filled ahead of opening night (ABC News).
Some of the biggest names in women’s basketball will be participating in the first Unrivaled season. Aside from league founders Collier and Stewart, stars such as Arike Ogunbowale, Brittney Griner, Angel Reese, Kelsey Plum, and Aliyah Boston top the list. With the last two players yet to be signed, the league is said to have been in talks to add Caitlin Clark with an expected offer of over $1 million per season, though a recent ESPN report said Clark will not participate this season. WNBA superstars A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu are notable omissions from the list of participants, but could possibly be among the last players joining on. Paige Bueckers, UConn standout and projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft, has already signed an NIL deal with the league, making her the first NCAA athlete to receive ownership equity with a league. Bueckers is set to make her Unrivaled debut in the 2026 season (Sports Illustrated).
At that point, the league hopes to expand to eight teams with 48 total roster spots, this according to league president Alex Bazzell, a basketball skills coach and Collier’s husband. Unrivaled is also planning on expansion to games across the U.S. in a tour-based format to come starting in 2026. The league has already joined forces with Ally Financial as the first and founding brand partner. Ally will be the league’s official jersey sponsor, assist in media spending and negotiations, activate hospitality and engagement opportunities, and appear in signage both online and in-arena (SBJ).
It seems as though fans have already taken a liking to this new league; tens of thousands tuned in to the club selection livestream on the Unrivaled YouTube channel to see who their favorite players would be competing for this season. Signed players have been gradually revealed over the past few months through Unrivaled social media platforms, with cryptic hints being posted before each player was officially announced. In the comment sections, fans played along and tried to guess who would take the next roster spot. It is safe to say this is an exciting time in professional women’s basketball, and many are eager to see if Unrivaled can capitalize on the hype to take women’s sports to the next level.
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