
By Mike Vorkunov and Ben Pickman / The Athletic
In spring 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the country, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was locked down in her New Jersey home. The league was facing a season on the brink right as its stakeholders felt it had begun to gather momentum.
In conversations with league owners and players, Engelbert sensed in those early weeks of the pandemic the tension over what was at stake. Without a season, the league would face what she later called an “existential” moment about the prospect of going dark for 20 months.
“I don’t know if we would have made it, but I do know we wouldn’t be where we are today without having had that highly competitive, 22-game season in the bubble,” Engelbert said.
Four years after the “Wubble,” the league is celebrating the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx, which returned to New York for Game 5 on Sunday night tied at 2-2, as a capstone to its most successful year. The league has never been in a better place. Television ratings are up. So is attendance. The league is riding a boom in interest and talent, driven by the steady excellence of longtime stars like A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, and the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Three expansion teams have already been named, and one more is expected. A lucrative new media deal is set to start in 2026.
The progress has not been without its growing pains. Occasional high-profile games have been moved because of scheduling conflicts, and fans have voiced frustration about merchandise and broadcast accessibility. Engelbert received criticism from players, including an admonishment from the players union, last month for what they said was an inadequate public response to the online harassment and abuse many said they have received this season. The union has also routinely called for more transparency from the league on its finances and operations.
But the league remains on the ascent, and the choice to play in 2020 has been hailed by team owners as an important springboard. “I think it was one of the best decisions made in the history of this league,” Seattle Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel said.
That decision kept the WNBA in the consciousness of fans and created a strengthened player body. And it continued to generate revenue via media rights and corporate partnerships.
A few months after the conclusion of the 2020 season, the WNBA made another choice that significantly affected its trajectory. It began to raise capital that has helped supercharge its reach and popularity. If not for that window of time, stakeholders say, the league might not be where it is now.
Before Engelbert took over as the WNBA’s first official commissioner in 2019 — the league was previously run by presidents — she had to interview with the team owners. As she went around the country, visiting all 12 markets, she heard a similar refrain. After nearly three decades of trying to find its footing, power brokers had decided it was time to grow. The plan, Engelbert said, was based on a simple idea: “Go big or go home.” The league, they told her, needed more capital.
There was no consensus on how much. Just that it needed more to grow.
In early 2021, the WNBA put out a pitch deck to investors. The process was driven, in part, by the Liberty’s ownership group, which also owns the Brooklyn Nets and Blue Pool Capital, a private equity firm. “At the time, we really needed that infusion of capital,” Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai said.
The NBA had helped stand up the league over its first two-plus decades in existence, but the WNBA was short on resources and personnel. It needed investments to put into marketing, brand building and digital innovation, and to drive more revenue.
A year later, it closed a $75 million capital raise that came with a $475 million post-money valuation for the league. Michael Dell and Nike were the largest investors, according to one person with knowledge of the raise who was not authorized to speak publicly about the agreement.
Investors in the capital raise took a roughly 16% stake in the league, with WNBA owners and NBA owners each splitting the rest in half, and took preferred equity. That gives them a priority return on their investment with a 5% dividend, said one person with knowledge of the capital raise. Although they have nonvoting shares in the league, they also have two observers on the board of governors.
“I was just intrigued that there was this league where the quality of the players is so great,” said Karen Finerman, the CEO of Metropolitan Capital and a WNBA investor. “And yet the league was struggling.”
The league’s financial situation has improved since then, and high-ranking executives and owners point to the raise as a reason. It helped put the WNBA in a place where it could take advantage of the surge in popularity since 2020.
“If we weren’t already making incremental progress in our business, then the moment that we’re experiencing right now would not be as big as it is,” said Greg Bibb, CEO and president of the Dallas Wings.
Engelbert believed the capital raise also showed that the WNBA could be a growth property. That wasn’t always the case for teams around the league.
When Wu Tsai and her husband, Joe Tsai, bought the Liberty in January 2019, they purchased an organization that she called a distressed asset. James Dolan, the franchise’s prior owner, put the Liberty for sale in November 2017 and moved it out of Madison Square Garden a season later and into Westchester County Center, where they played for two seasons.
“Nobody wanted to touch it,” Wu Tsai said.
Nevertheless, the Tsais found the franchise attractive. They recognized the power of New York as a media market and knew how much the city loved basketball. They believed there was a fan base waiting to be reinvigorated.
The Liberty have been reenergized and are viewed around the league as one of the franchises responsible for raising the bar.
MLB PLAYOFFS
League Championship Series (Best of 7)
National League
Game 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 9, New York Mets 0
Game 2
Mets 7, Dodgers 3 (Series tied 1-1)
Game 3
Dodgers 8, Mets 0
Thursday’s Game 4
Dodgers 10, Mets 2
Friday’s Game 5
Mets 12, Dodgers 6 (Dodgers lead series 3-2)
Sunday’s Game 6
(All times Eastern)
Mets at Dodgers, 8:08 p.m.
Today’s Game 7 (if needed)
Mets at Dodgers (8:08 p.m., Fox Sports)
American League
Game 1
New York Yankees 5, Cleveland Guardians 2
Game 2
Yankees 6, Guardians 3
Thursday’s Game 3
Guardians 7, Yankees 5
Friday’s Game 4
Yankees 8, Guardians 6
Saturday’s Game 5
Yankees 5, Guardians 2 (NY wins series 4-1)
World Series (Best of 7)
Game 1
Friday, Oct. 25
New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers or New York
Mets, TBD (Fox)
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