MEDLEY, Fla. — The vision for a lucrative, U.S.-based women’s basketball calendar will finally be put to the test Friday, when Unrivaled debuts its inaugural season.
The new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart kicks off an eight-week season Friday night with two games that will air on TNT at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Collier and Stewart created the league to fix a common issue for professional women’s players: the need to travel abroad during the offseason to supplement their WNBA incomes. They aren’t the first to try—Athletes Unlimited wooed several of the WNBA’s top talents to Nashville for its fourth season this winter—but they are the first to combine big investment, a major media-rights deal, and dozens of the sport’s biggest stars.
“I think honestly, success, we’ve already accomplished that,” Collier of the league’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club said Thursday at Unrivaled’s media day.
Unrivaled announced a media-rights agreement with TNT in October, reportedly a three-year deal with a three-year option that could bring the total to about $100 million. The league doubled down on its TV strategy by committing to an 850-person capacity arena, making it so their players could have the game court and practice courts, workout facilities, recovery areas, makeup rooms, childcare, meals, and a content studio all in one complex.
So far, players seem to be loving Unrivaled and its amenities, none more loudly than Angel Reese. She even created custom Reebok shoes for her new team. Several players said they’re excited for a change of pace from their cold-weather WNBA markets. “ I’m trying to go to the beach as much as I can,” Lexie Hull, who plays for Rose Basketball Club, said Thursday.
All players have equity in the league, and the total salary pool is more than $8 million, making the average Unrivaled salary more than $220,000. In the WNBA last season, about 20 players out of the 144-person league had a base salary worth more than $200,000.
Because the arena is so small, tickets aren’t cheap. Resale tickets on the league’s official website through Ticketmaster on Friday morning started at $425 for opening night. Later in the season, the get-in resale price is $120 for some games, and $375 for others.
Last month, Unrivaled announced a $28 million investing round, bringing total funding to $35 million. Sports stars including Michael Phelps, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Coco Gauff, Alex Morgan, Dawn Staley, JuJu Watkins, Steve Nash, Megan Rapinoe, and Carmelo Anthony have all signed on as investors. The league has inked corporate deals with companies including Samsung, Wayfair, Under Armour, Wilson, and Sephora. TNT is also invested in addition to its media deal. UConn’s Paige Bueckers and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson both signed NIL deals with the league, which commits them to an equity stake and marketing obligations in the short term and a roster spot once they turn pro.
Over the last few months the league took a unique marketing approach, announcing each player who signed on one at a time with a custom hint on social media. The attention to detail quickly took off with fans, leading Unrivaled to sell a small number of “Unrivaled Hint Crew” T-shirts that say “Where’s the hint, hint girl?” on the back. Much of the merchandise on the league website is modeled by Bueckers and Johnson.
The league’s 36 players were divided into six teams called Basketball Clubs: Rose, Vinyl, Mist, Lunar Owls, Phantom, and Laces. None of the teams have a home market, which league president Alex Bazzell tells Front Office Sports was “one of the challenges we always knew going into it.”
TNT’s Unrivaled studio coverage will include Candace Parker, Lauren Jbara, Renee Montgomery, and Lisa Leslie, with Brendan Glasheen, Sarah Kustok and Leslie on the call. Taylor Rooks, Allie LaForce, Stephanie Ready, and Ros Gold-Onwude will serve as reporters. Friday and Monday night games will air on TNT, Saturday games will be on truTV, and every matchup will be available to stream on Max.
Friday won’t be an easy night for Unrivaled from a broadcast perspective. The new league’s debut will go up against big NBA matchups like Celtics-Magic and Thunders-Mavericks. But Bazzell, who is married to Collier, isn’t overly concerned about the ratings.
“We don’t expect to go get the same numbers the WNBA does,” he says. “We’re just trying to deliver a great product, which I know we can do.”
