Unrivaled: New women’s basketball league with high salaries and prominent investors in the USA

Basketball players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier aren’t known for being squeamish about each other. The days when they played together for the University of Connecticut are over, as is their last appearance together during the Paris Olympics. The two leading figures from the New York Liberty (Stewart) and the Minnesota Lynx (Collier) now play against each other much more often, as recently in the WNBA finals series. There they didn’t give each other anything, neither free throws nor undisturbed moves to the basket, instead hard elbows and the odd block. “We have a lot of respect for each other,” Breanna Stewart, who won the title with New York, is quoted as saying on wnba.com, “but we put that aside on the field.”

Off the field, things seem to work quite well between the two. Collier and Stewart are among the founders of a new US women’s basketball league, which they have confidently named Unrivaled, i.e. unique, unsurpassed. Unrivaled’s goal is to bring together the league’s biggest stars during the break in the professional league WNBA and have them play against each other in four seven-minute quarters in 3×3 mode over the entire (albeit slightly shortened) field during a ten-week-long season – and to reward them with the highest average salaries ever paid in an American women’s sports league – and with shares in the league.

36 players are spread across the league’s six teams, and the density of WNBA finalists and Team USA members is immense. In addition to Collier and Stewart, the big names include Kelsey Plum, Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas and the German international Satou Sabally. Sabally has previously played in the WNBA for the Dallas Wings, but recently announced that he would be open to negotiations with other clubs. There are also players like Angel Reese, who made a name for herself as a decorated college player, social media celebrity and contender for the WNBA “Rookie Of The Year” title – and brings an extremely large fan base with her. Only Caitlin Clark, currently the most famous basketball player in the world, is missing. There is speculation on the Internet about an astronomical offer, but Clark himself mainly frequents North American golf courses in the off-season and has not yet expressed any public interest in Unrivaled. Even though two of the 36 places are still up for grabs, if one of the two went to Clark, it would be a sensation.

Two places are still free, another German could still come

In order to guarantee balanced competition, the teams were put together jointly by the league’s coaches. They were introduced for the first time last Wednesday, and there is still a vacant spot in Satou Sabally’s team. Who could take it? “We hope to be able to sign another German player,” says Alex Bazzell in the video call, without elaborating further. There should be a good relationship with Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally, both of whom are teammates of Breanna Stewart.

Bazzell leads the fortunes of Unrivaled as president and is not only co-founder of the league, but also husband of Napheesa Collier and father of their daughter. “The league is unique,” ​​he says confidently, only the Spanish Kings football league resembles the concept of Unrivaled. “But it is purely an influencer league. Unrivaled is about competition, pride, plays, but also good defense.” The sport has little to do with classic 3×3 basketball, especially because you play on two baskets: “More space, less Players: Unrivaled allows the best of the best to show what they can do.”

Even if the elite stay at home in the future, other players will move up to clubs in Europe, Asia and Australia

It’s also about money. When Collier and Bazzell first thought about starting their own league in the winter of 2022, they first contacted Breanna Stewart – who was playing for Fenerbahçe Istanbul at the time and was one of the highest earners in other European countries. “It was about creating opportunities for players who no longer overseas wanted to play.” This probably also means financial opportunities. The players in the North American men’s league NBA are not allowed to play abroad after the season, so in the off-season they devote themselves to training and – very importantly: their advertising partners. The female basketball players, on the other hand, often disappear into basketball no-man’s land, at least from an American perspective. They swarm to Europe, Asia and Australia to get more match practice, but above all to make up for the meager salaries that the WNBA summer league pays them compared to their male colleagues. The WNBA starting salary in 2024 was just under $70,000.

Will the leagues outside the USA suffer from Unrivaled if the American basketball elite can play at home all year round? Bazzell says no. “It’s not about taking players away from the leagues. We simply followed a trend. There are already more and more players who want to stay at home during the off-season, for family or other reasons. Others will take their place.” In addition, the higher salaries that Unrivaled pays would also have an impact on salary negotiations beyond US borders – in favor of the players.

On average, the players receive around $250,000 for their work over several weeks, not including prize money and shares, says Bazzell. “Women’s basketball is one of the fastest growing sports right now. We give the players the chance to benefit from this monetarily, in the short and long term, through their salaries, but also through their shares.” Especially in the WNBA, players could demand similar conditions in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. “We’re still a long way from reaching our goal,” says Bazzell. “Salaries will continue to rise. The players, many of whom have now become brands themselves, deserve this.”

Ex-professional athletes Steve Nash, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan are among the supporters, as are media moguls David Levy and John Skipper and actor Ashton Kutcher

Unrivaled also owes its high salaries to prominent investors – including former professional athletes Steve Nash, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, media moguls David Levy and John Skipper and actor Ashton Kutcher (Hollywood celebrities are now among the donors in the USA good manners, including in women’s sports). Add to that a TV rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports that could be worth more than $100 million, like that Sports Business Journal reported (it is still unclear whether the games will also be broadcast in Europe). The fact that Unrivaled’s venue, an as yet unnamed hall in Miami, only has 850 seats, is a calculation. The league is designed to reach fans on screens, also thanks to the charisma of the players and their number of followers on social networks.

Unrivaled starts on January 17th in Miami and consists of 45 games in total. Collier and Stewart, not surprisingly, play on different teams. “We now treat each other politely,” it says in a YouTube video from the league, with a slightly ironic undertone. The video was recorded in a meeting room. Politeness is then discarded again on the court.