Unrivaled women’s basketball league is setting a new standard for salaries before it even tips off

MIAMI (AP) — 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.

The games will be played on a smaller court with different rules than players are use to in the WNBA, including an 18-second shot clock instead of 24 seconds. Bazzell said fans can expect to see exciting professional basketball during the WNBA offseason with games played at a faster pace.

Despite the optimism, there are questions whether Unrivaled's model is sustainable.

Johns Hopkins associate professor of economics Christina DePasquale says Unrivaled has a strong financial base for an upstart league but its long-term viability will be determined by TV ratings and whether the advertisers are willing to come back in year three or four.

“It looks good right now," she said. “They have a lot of capital, have a lot of co-owners, sponsors who have bought into this who have equity.”

Bazzell, who is married to Collier, has said Unrivaled has a salary pool of more $8 million. That salary pool doesn't include equity or revenue sharing payments which all of the initial 36 players have. And with all games being played in Miami at an 850-seat facility, travel costs are minimal which enables the league to pay its players higher salaries. The league itself also provides a viable option that gives players another way to supplement their WNBA salaries without having to play overseas during the offseason.

“I think we’re not here to be kind of a blip in history,” the league president said. “I think we we want to be here long term.”

‘Everyone wants these players to make more money’

The league also is working to engage future stars as Unrivaled has NIL deals with Paige Bueckers of UConn and LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson. Bueckers is expected to play in Unrivaled next season.

The timing of Unrivaled's debut comes at an opportune time for WNBA players.

“Being able to wake up and get the things we deserve," said Reese. “It puts pressure on the ‘W’ especially with the CBA coming up soon.”

The WNBA players' union opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement a few months ago is currently in negotiations for a new CBA.

“I think we are going to continue to be kind of the trendsetters” for salaries and benefits, Bazzell said. “And I think you’re going to see it as well in the WNBA. Everyone wants these players to make more” money.

DePasquale believes that Unrivaled can help the WNBA.

“It doesn’t have to be a zero sum game. The success of Unrivaled doesn’t mean that it’s taking something away from the WNBA,” DePasquale said in a phone interview. “A Pareto improvement where the success of Unrivaled can be correlated with the success of the WNBA.”

Phoenix Mercury All-Star Brittney Griner agrees.

“Unrivaled is showing that you don’t need a lot of time to pool resources together,” Griner said. “Being happy with what we already have is not gonna fly. ... it’ll definitely put pressure on (the WNBA) to do better.”

Personalized chef, childcare option among player amenities

Players say they have enjoyed the amenities Unrivaled has offered during the two weeks that they have been in Miami, including the personalized chef at the arena, the two-bedroom apartments, a glamour room and rental cars.

“Unrivaled is a beacon in the way its made a clear and inspiring business case for centering players and their power as the business,” WNBA agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas said. “Players and agents operate as partners and sponsors and have responded because the product is diverse, authentic and ultra engaging. The good news is that the success Unrivaled is modeling is not zero sum. It’s a template and an invitation.”

For the half-dozen parents playing in the new league, Unrivaled has offered stipends as well as a state-of-the-art child care option.

“Every game night, whether you’re playing or not, the players can come, they can drop their kids off,” Bazzell said. “If you don’t play, you can go on a date night. We just want to build a family environment."

Though two of best women's basketball players are not playing in the league — A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, Unrivaled is also benefiting from the name recognition of other top WNBA players participating in the league. Few professional start-up sports leagues have as many recognizable players that Unrivaled will feature when it tips off.

“This is almost like a superstar league,” DePasquale said. “That certainly will help get people to tune in and continuously tune in. A lot of the other professional league offshoots have become minor leagues in a sense and that’s not what this is.”

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This story is part of the AP’s Inclusive Journalism Initiative with The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press