Unrivaled 3-On-3 Women’s Basketball League ‘Almost Broke Even’ In Debut Season
After Unrivaled debuted its first season, the league stated that it ‘almost broke even’ in its inaugural year
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Nearly two years ago, WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart announced a new 3-on-3 basketball league that would be “Unrivaled. ” After its first season, the league stated that it ‘almost broke even’ in its inaugural debut.
According to Front Office Sports, Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler admitted that the league did not do too badly this year as it brought in over $27 million in revenue in its first year in business. She informed the media outlet that the new league almost broke even and that there is more that can be done to make the league successful. She anticipates that Unrivaled could start seeing a profit in its second year.
“We almost broke even in the first year,” Lawler said. “We know there’s more that we can do.”
With a deal with TNT and several major sponsors supporting the league, Unrivaled was able to snare some prominent WNBA players to participate in the new venture. The average salary for the 36 women who played this past season was $200,000. Statistica reported that the average salary in the WNBA, which also plays a longer season than Unrivaled, is around $120,000. The first season saw the league average 221,000 viewers during the regular season and the playoffs, with the championship game bringing in 364,000.
League president Alex Bazzell said that there are plans on how to draw more revenue for the upcoming season after seeing how things went in the first year of Unrivaled.
“We ended up doing, I believe, $1.4 or $1.5 million in merchandise sales this year,” Bazzell said. “How do we double or triple that right away just by being more efficient? Ticket revenue, we know we’re going to add seats to our venue. We want to remove the back panel area where players walk in that you’re going to see on TV, create more seating which increases our revenue from that standpoint.”
The league played its games at one arena but plans on taking games to additional venues in the future. It has not been determined where, but they anticipate playing in two cities outside of their Miami base.
“This is sustainable,” Lawler said. “There’s definitely an appetite and great support for it.”