The WNBPA must look to Unrivaled books, ticket sales, and merchandise sales. For the WNBPA to get a clear picture of what the WNBA players are actually worth. If the WNBPA fails to recognize the value of these professional athletes. It is because the WNBPA failed to understand its individual and team monetary worth, which will likely lead to the WNBPA devaluing itself.
Unrivaled brought over 18,000 fans to the Barclays Center and over 21,000 to the Unrivaled games in Philadelphia. Unrivaled has done what the WNBA hasn’t: put the players first.
Unrivaled has showcased to the world the commitment needed to run a successful league. The WNBA is guilty of failing to put players first. The WNBA is guilty of failing to recognize the importance of its workers. How is it possible for a league like Unrivaled, only in its second season, to bring over 39,000 people into a stadium to watch these women perform at the highest level there is in women’s professional sports, if not for Unrivaled actually understanding the ethical valuation of these women in their own individual and team regard? Unrivaled has a mere 1,000 seats at its HQ in Miami but a viewership that surpasses or rivals the WNBA.
Unrivaled, with only a 6-woman roster and 8 basketball clubs, has done more for these women than the WNBA has since 1996, and that is: put the women first.
Why do these women have to beg the WNBA to pay them beyond the pocket change the WNBA keeps proposing?
Unrivaled has showcased to the WNBA that this small league can draw crowds of over 18,000 or 21,000!
How can the WNBA continue to ignore or treat these women as ignorant of what they are actually worth?
After season two of Unrivaled, no one can say the WNBA doesn’t have viewers. No one can say that these players aren’t worth more than the mere pocket change the WNBA is proposing to give these players. If the WNBPA is not looking at Unrivaled as its backboard in determining whether these players will play in the 2026 season. The WNBPA is going to severely devalue itself and fail in every regard in achieving its goals and purpose. And what is that? If not, revenue sharing with WNBA players at the highest possible level, which Unrivaled has clearly shown they so clearly deserve and have earned.
What we are witnessing in real time is the fight for women to be paid what they are owed, and the WNBPA has all the credibility it needs to determine salaries, benefits, and league-sharing revenue from a league barely in its second season.
If Unrivaled has taught us anything, it is how real player-centered businesses should operate, rather than the rampant corruption in the sports world, where the league and its affiliates eat all the profits and give the players the crumbs.