Superstar rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have been credited with the WNBA’s massive surge in popularity, but neither of their teams – the Indiana Fever or the Chicago Sky – are the league’s wealthiest.
Rather, the Dallas Wings, who are tied for last place this season, are the most valuable franchise in the league at $208 million, Front Office Sports reported Monday.
The value reportedly has surged more than $100 million in the aftermath of two investors recently buying a 1 percent stake in the team at $2.08 million.
Greg Bibb, the Wings’ CEO and part-owner, sold the 1 percent stake to businessmen Jed Kaplan and Randy Eisenman.
In June, Sportico valued the Wings at $75 million, the 11th-highest total in the WNBA. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces were the No. 1 team at $140 million.
The most valuable WNBA team has been revealed, and it’s not Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever
The Dallas Wings are the wealthiest franchise in the league, worth $208 million
The Wings are 6-19 this year, tied with the Washington Mystics.
‘I would say the value of anything is what the market’s willing to pay,’ Bibb told Sports Business Journal.
‘I can make a compelling case for why that $208 million number is justifiable.’
Kaplan is a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA, and Eisenman founded a local hedge fund.
Their investment reportedly comes amid an off-court surge for the Wings, including a presumptive new TV contract and getting the franchise a $19 million incentive from the city of Dallas to move in 2026 from their current arena – College Park Center at the University of Texas at Arlington – to a refurbished Memorial Coliseum in downtown Dallas.
The Coliseum has a seating capacity of 8,500 compared with College Park Center at just over 6,000.
Meanwhile, the WNBA as a whole has experienced a huge boost in ratings, merchandise sales and attendance at games in 2024.
Clark and fellow rookie Angel Reese helped the WNBA record a 1000% increase in merch sales
The WNBA has also inked a new media rights package worth about $2.2 billion over 11 years
A superstar rookie class, led by Clark and Reese, has given the sport a huge boost in 2024
The league also inked a new media rights package in July worth about $2.2 billion over 11 years, The Athletic reported.
It nets out to approximately $200 million annually, roughly four times the WNBA’s current media deals with Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon, which are valued at $50 million annually.
Several records have already been smashed throughout this WNBA season alone, with the league announcing last month that more than 400,000 fans attended games in May – the most in 26 years.
Additionally, the league’s viewership has increased greatly since Clark and Reese’s arrival.
Across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and CBS, WNBA games are averaging 1.32 million viewers – which is nearly triple last season’s standard of 462,200 viewers.
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