Women’s basketball has largely been ruled by two leagues for the past three decades.
Beginning in 1997, the WNBA had control of the summer and EuroLeague dominated the rest of the calendar. In recent years the landscape has become more crowded with two new U.S. leagues—Athletes Unlimited in 2022 and Unrivaled last year.
Now, a fourth major player is joining the fall, winter, and spring competition window. Project B—a new global basketball league—officially announced its plans in October to host tournaments across Asia, Europe, and Latin America beginning in November 2026 and running through April 2027.
On Friday the league, founded by former Facebook executive Grady Burnett and Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice, announced that it had signed Seattle Storm star—and WNBPA president—Nneka Ogwumike as its first player.
Other WNBA players have already signed deals to play in Project B, multiple sources told Front Office Sports.
Those same sources said multiple stars are being offered seven-figure salaries starting at $2 million annually, with their earnings for multiyear deals reaching eight figures. In addition, players will receive equity in the league, similar to Unrivaled.
The questions everyone is asking in women’s basketball right now: How big of a threat is Project B? And to whom?
A number of WNBA executives told FOS the immediate reaction to the new 5-on-5 league, which will feature six teams of 11 players, is one of curiosity. While the season doesn’t come in direct competition with the WNBA calendar, multiple sources questioned whether the league could be an indirect threat to the WNBA in time, and suggested that some WNBA players could consider forgoing the season if CBA negotiations continue to go poorly.
It’s not unheard of: Diana Taurasi skipped the 2015 WNBA season to rest after playing for a Russian team in the offseason. UMMC Ekaterinburg paid her more than her $107,000 WNBA salary to sit out in 2015. Taurasi made $1.5 million playing for the Russian behemoth at the time.
In recent years, players like Emma Meesseman and Gabby Williams have missed time in the WNBA due to the league’s strict prioritization rules. Meesseman notably missed 2023 and 2024 while playing for the Belgian national team and Turkish club Fenerbahçe.
Multiple WNBA executives viewed the Ogwumike announcement—again, she is the WNBPA president—as an intentional move to exert pressure on labor negotiations. There was a similar feeling last year when union leaders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart cofounded Unrivaled. At the time, both players acknowledged the start-up 3-on-3 league—complete with lucrative salaries and player amenities that were superior to those offered by several WNBA teams—came at a perfect time as negotiations for a new CBA were just beginning.
The WNBA and the union entered into a 30-day extension last week, making Nov. 30 the updated deadline for a new CBA. The WNBA had no comment when asked about Project B’s potential impact on the league.
The most immediate threat Project B poses is to Unrivaled and foreign leagues that play in the WNBA offseason, as their seasons directly conflict.
Nearly 30 players in Unrivaled are signed to multiyear contracts. The league has exclusivity during its months of play, which could make them unavailable to sign with Project B, depending on the new 5-on-5 league’s allowances. EuroLeague, for example, has multiple clubs with players who are currently under contract but will leave to play in Unrivaled beginning in January.
It’s unclear whether Project B would make the same concession for its players.
“We’re confident with what we’ve built in collaboration with our athletes, partners, and investors,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said in a statement to FOS. “We remain consistent in our approach to pay players competitively, provide a meaningful stake in the business, and keep them home year-round. We continue to be a player-first league that’s additive to the overall women’s basketball ecosystem and WNBA, and we look forward to building on the success from season one this upcoming January.”
A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Jonquel Jones, and DeWanna Bonner are among the biggest WNBA stars not currently signed to Unrivaled contracts. Other players like Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, and Angel Reese played in Unrivaled’s inaugural season, but they are not on rosters for this winter.
Project B’s investor group includes a collection of WNBA champions in Candace Parker, Alana Beard, and Lauren Jackson, as well as tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens.
Beard, whose longstanding relationship with Ogwumike includes eight seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks, is also the league’s chief basketball officer. The league sought to raise $5 billion in funding, according to a Bloomberg report at the beginning of the year, but it declined to share how much it actually raised when asked by FOS in October. Maverick Carter, longtime business partner of LeBron James, was advising the group at one point but has since cut ties with the international league.
“We’re paying multiples higher than is available right now in the world of women’s sports,” Burnett told FOS last month. “We are paying the highest salaries and equity packages in women’s team sports, and this will be some of the best players in the world. We want this to be incredible basketball.”
Unrivaled paid its players an average salary of $220,000 in its inaugural season, but Bazzell said those numbers have increased without sharing specifics.
The WNBA’s current supermax salary is $249,244, with the lowest-paid players earning under $80,000 this past season. An October proposal from the league included a supermax closer to $850,000 and a veteran minimum around $300,000. The league and union have since exchanged proposals, meaning those numbers have likely changed.
