The WNBA could triple its media rights fees to $200 million per season. The current package is valued at approximately $60 million and expires next season.
The NBA owns approximately 60 percent of the WNBA and is negotiating that deal alongside its more than $7 billion per season packages with ESPN, NBC and Amazon.
Because the WNBA deal is part of a combined package with the NBA, the league will determine how much the WNBA media rights are worth.
The WNBA players will receive a percentage of their media rights revenue and will see their salaries increase. The WNBA currently has a salary cap of around $1.4 million for each team, which puts the average salary for each player at a little more than $100,000. The WNBA players are expected to opt out of their collective bargaining agreement next year.
“It’s a huge advantage to us to go to market with the NBA,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Washington Post. “Especially with streaming services who rely on a 12-month subscription model. If we’re only there for 4½ months … how attractive is that? But we and the NBA are maybe the only sports properties that can give 330 days of live programming — almost the entire year. That’s hugely valuable to a subscription platform.”
The WNBA had total revenue of between $180 million and $200 million last season. Despite the recent growth of the WNBA, the league and its teams are expected to lose around $50 million this season.
“The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA,” said one WNBA team executive.
