When Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia each paid $250 million to join the WNBA last year, fans asked a question: if someone is willing to pay a quarter of a billion dollars just to enter this league, why are players still earning an average of $120,000 a season?
The answer requires understanding how the WNBA's money actually works, and why the numbers that make headlines are not connected to the numbers that determine player salaries.
Let's start with franchise valuations. According to Sportico, the average WNBA franchise is now worth $269 million, up 180% from just a year ago. The Golden State Valkyries, who played their first game in 2025, are already valued at $500 million, a massive return on the $50 million expansion fee their ownership group paid in 2023. According to Forbes, The New York Liberty are valued at $400 million. The Indiana Fever at $370 million. One would look at these numbers and think that they are massive for a league that has never turned a profit....
Here's the thing: Franchise valuation is not actually revenue. It does not sit in a bank account, and it cannot be distributed to players. A team that is worth $420 million on paper could generate $25 million in actual annual revenue and still lose money on operations.
Expansion fees work the same way. When Portland paid $75 million to join the league in 2024, that money did not go into an account that funds player salaries. Under the WNBA's ownership structure, which is very different from major sports leagues, the NBA owns 42% of the league, current WNBA team owners own another 42%, and a 2022 investor group owns the remaining 16%. When expansion fees come in, they are distributed among existing stakeholders according to that structure. In actuality, expansion dilutes only the 42% held by WNBA team owners , not the NBA's share, and not the investors' share. The NBA, takes its cut of expansion proceeds without its ownership stake being reduced at all. It's wild when you think about it.
Regarding the CBA fight, WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike has been open about questioning why the $250 million expansion fees are not reflected in the player's compensation. The league responded by sharing that expansion fees "essentially cancel themselves out" because new teams earn a fractional share of future league revenue while existing teams get a portion of the fee but lose a fractional share going forward. This is why the league argues the fact that expansion fees are a zero-sum redistribution among owners, not new wealth that can be shared with players.
Despite this fact, the players don't accept that framing and we completely understand why. The same ownership groups that argue expansion fees are financially neutral have watched their franchise values increase. The Liberty's owners purchased the team for under $15 million in 2019. Their franchise is now valued at $420 million. Whether or not expansion fees are technically "cancelled out" on a ledger, the folks who are writing those checks believe the league is worth far more than its operating financials.
The TV deal sits in a similar category. The WNBA's incoming 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights agreement with Disney, Amazon, and NBC is worth approximately $200 million per year starting in 2026. This represents a genuine and significant increase in operating revenue, not just paper valuation. But despite the influx of cashflow, we still have to pay attention to the distribution structure. In 2024, each WNBA team received only about $2.5 million in central revenue from national media deals because nearly 60% of league-level equity is held by NBA owners and the 2022 investor group rather than the teams themselves. The new media deal will increase that number substantially, but the ownership structure means a significant share of that revenue flows to the NBA before it reaches WNBA players or teams.
We aren't saying that the players are not underpaid because they def are! NBA players receive 50% of basketball-related income, yet WNBA players currently take home less than 10% of league revenue under the existing CBA. No one can defend this gap regardless of whether or not the league is profitable. But we have to look at why billion-dollar valuations and nine-figure expansion fees don't necessarily translate into higher salaries, and we have to understand the financial make-up of the WNBA that is drastically different from any other major sports league in North America.
The players are not wrong to ask where their share is based off the $250 million expansion fees; however, the league is also not technically wrong seeing as how those fees don't directly fund operations. This is exactly why the CBA negotiation exists.
What would actually move the needle for players isn't a share of franchise valuations or expansion fees. It's a higher percentage of gross operating revenue which includes the money generated by tickets, sponsorships, merchandise, and media rights year after year. That's the real fight, and to be honest, everything else is a distraction.