Unrivaled women’s basketball league is setting a new standard for salaries before it even tips off
Unrivaled women’s basketball league is setting a new standard for salaries before it even tips off
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Unrivaled is setting a new standard for women's basketball before one game has been played in the upstart league. In a word: Salaries. The 3-on-3 league by Olympic gold medalists Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart debuts Friday featuring 36 players from the WNBA, ranging from veterans like Brittney Griner to rookie Angel Reese.
Unrivaled has the highest average salary for players of any professional women's sports league with many earning six-figure salaries for the eight-week season. Players in Unrivaled have an average salary of more than $220,000, which is close to the maximum base salary in the WNBA.
“When it comes to each individual player, I think what we’re most proud of is they’re making more here per game than any league in the world," Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We want to now set the new standard of what expectation is for pay on the court.
"A lot of these players are making a lot of money off the court, but it’s that the best athletes in the world are compensated for what they do, which is basketball.”. Unrivaled could be a sustainable women's league. Leading up to its launch, Unrivaled raised more than $35 million from various sources and dozens of individual investors, including Dawn Staley, Geno Auriemma and Coco Gauff. The league has also secured partnership deals with Ally, State Farm, Wilson, Under Armour, Opill, Miller Lite, Sprite, Sephora, VistaPrint and Ticketmaster to go along with a multiyear media rights deal with TNT Sports. Financial details about the partnerships have not been released.
