WNBA camp days are notorious among the league’s players, coaches, and media members. 

They have a reputation for reaching ear-splitting decibels courtesy of the preteen screams of the fans who fill the WNBA’s arenas on these special days. But how exactly did these events become so popular in the league? And are these morning and early afternoon games, scheduled specifically to accommodate campers, still conducive to the WNBA’s growth? 

“There is some value to it,” Chicago Sky forward Elizabeth Williams said after her team’s 81–79 loss to the Washington Mystics on Tuesday, a designated camp day in the DMV. “Getting young boys and girls to see us in a position where a lot of times they would never get to see professional people play, especially professional women, that’s important.” 

WNBA camp days predate many existing executives’ tenure in the league, but the goal of scheduling them was to expose children attending summer camps to professional sports. As a result, the league was simultaneously building its next generation of fans. 

These games are scheduled just like any other. Teams first decide whether they want to host one. From there, they suggest dates to the league that could work in their schedule. This week, the WNBA had multiple camp days starting with the Sky-Mystics 11 a.m. ET tip-off on Tuesday at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va. Wednesday features two matinee games, starting with the Seattle Storm against the Connecticut Sun at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by the Indiana Fever hosting the Golden State Valkyries at noon. The latter game is expected to feature Caitlin Clark’s return after an injury-related absence.

In past years, some teams would host multiple camp days in one season. Today, some franchises don’t play host at all. 

The Sky are hosting one in 2025 on July 16 at 11 a.m. against the Atlanta Dream. The team’s camp-day registration website shares that last year’s designated camp-day games sold out. Once standard seating is accounted for, groups are added to a waitlist that gives them the opportunity to purchase tickets at the camp-day pricing. 

In recent years, however, some have questioned the midday start times, whether it be fans or players who have to adjust to the early tip-off. 

Multiple team presidents told Front Office Sports that the games still have value to their franchises, citing direct feedback from fans who have shared that these games were when they first became WNBA fans. 

“It’s just another opportunity to get eyes on us and for people to see us as the professional athletes that we are,” Williams added. 

The rosters for the annual MLB All-Star Game, for generations a source of debate among fans and players alike, carry something of a new financial look this year. 

Led by the high-profile omission of Mets outfielder Juan Soto from the National League squad, something now riling much of the baseball world, this year’s All-Star teams leave out many of the sport’s highest-paid players. 

The second-, third-, and fourth-highest paid players in 2025 compensation—the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, Yankees’ Aaron Judge, and Rangers’ Jacob deGrom—will be in Atlanta for the July 15 All-Star Game at Truist Park. No other player in the sport’s top 10, however, was named an All-Star, and just four selections came from players ranked Nos. 11–20. 

Instead, the 2025 All-Star rosters are heavily populated by younger players—21 of whom are ages 26 or younger—and many, such as the Pirates’ Paul Skenes and Reds’ Elly De La Cruz, who still have not reached eligibility for arbitration or free agency. 

The absence of many of MLB’s top-paid players derive from a variety of reasons, including significant injuries for players such as the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, missing all of this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March, and Angels’ Anthony Rendon, and relative underperformance for other stars such as the Astros’ Jose Altuve and Twins’ Carlos Correa. 

Soto is beginning a 15-year, $765 million contract this year with the Mets, and after a rather difficult start to the season has shown his customary performance of late and was named the National League Player of the Month for June. 

The broader situation with the All-Stars, however, does not necessarily signal a changed economic order in the sport, particularly as MLB and the MLB Players Association approach a labor negotiation next year that is widely expected to be difficult, even by baseball’s historical standards. 

On a team level, long-term success remains closely tied to player payroll. Seven of the eight teams leading current betting odds to win the 2025 World Series are in the top half of MLB luxury-tax payrolls, including each of the top five and six of the top seven. The defending-champion Dodgers and their record-setting $406.3 million outlay lead that list.

Lakers vs. Mavericks became a must-watch rivalry following the shocking Luka Dončić trade in February. But the two teams are also the biggest draws at the Las Vegas Summer League this month as the debuting Cooper Flagg faces off against Bronny James.

The average purchase price for Day 1 of the Las Vegas Summer League on Thursday is $201, per data from resell ticketing platform TickPick provided to Front Office Sports. That’s the highest-priced ticket for Summer League on record. 

The get-in price for a general-admission ticket is $83, while courtside seats are going for more than $2,500. 

A ticket grants access to all seven Summer League games played between the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, though the Lakers vs. Mavericks matchup is scheduled for the primetime window (8 p.m. ET tip-off). 

While the exhibition game will not feature All-Stars like Dončić, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis, it’s expected to be the first official NBA-sanctioned game for Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. James’s son Bronny, the No. 55 pick in last year’s draft, is expected to compete for the Lakers.

It’s no surprise that the combination of a top pick’s debut and a big-name Lakers star is driving up Summer League ticket prices. The first-ever sellout at Summer League came in 2017 when Lonzo Ball, the No. 2 pick in that year’s draft, made his Lakers debut. (Los Angeles is about a four-hour drive from Las Vegas.)

According to ESPN, general-admission tickets for that game were up to $250 on resale platforms—though TickPick’s tracking data does not go as far back as 2017.

The Summer League debut of 2023 No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama also drew a sellout crowd of 17,500 to the Thomas & Mack Center. According to TickPick, the average purchase price for the day was $161—the third highest on record.