Don’t believe the trolls. The WNBA is neither hemorrhaging money nor being propped up by the NBA.
While it was once true the W needed the support of the NBA and its owners to survive, the league made enough money last year to trigger revenue sharing with the players. According to ESPN, the league told the WNBA Players Association in early February that the benchmark to trigger revenue sharing had been hit and the players would get $16 million.
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Half of that went to players who were active last season and the other half, as mandated by the last collective bargaining agreement, went to league marketing agreements.
While revenue sharing for the players was at 9% under the previous CBA, it’s not readily apparent how much the league made because the W hasn’t said and rev sharing wasn’t tied directly to revenue. Unlike in the NBA, where players get 50% of the league’s revenue, the W’s rev sharing only kicked in after the league hit a benchmark determined by a complicated formula based on cumulative revenue targets.
But we know the W generated at least $200 million in revenue in 2025 because last year was the first year of an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon. Add to that tickets, the All-Star Game and the sponsors that have flocked to the league, and some estimates have the W generating around $300 million last year.
The WNBPA also said in February, separately, it would distribute $9.25 million to players from licensing revenue generated by the sale of jerseys, video games, trading cards and other merchandise since 2020.
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Under the new CBA agreed to on Wednesday, March 18, revenue sharing rises to almost 20% and is believed to be tied directly to the league’s gross revenues. That was a sticking point in the negotiations because while the WNBA was offering a higher percentage, it would have been based on net revenue — gross minus expenses — and likely would have left the players with less money.
Individual teams also increasingly have their own revenue streams. The Seattle Storm, for example, last year sold the naming rights to their new $64 million practice facility for an undisclosed amount to BECU in what the team said was a first for the WNBA. The Indiana Fever has already said it plans to sell naming rights to its $78 million practice facility, currently under construction.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How much money WNBA makes, based on everything we know
