Faster, smarter, unprecedented: Inside the new $34M women's basketball league, Unrivaled
Unrivaled offers top women’s basketball players a fresh off-season opportunity with higher pay and equity
I have read about Unrivaled. It's business model is similar to golf's LIV tour. Unrivaled's players earn a minimum of $200,000 a year. They have equity in the league as the sub-lede says. It is worker empowerment. To me, it is the wave of the future. The American professional sports leagues, NFL, NBA, NHL, need the competition of an Unrivaled LIV.
Unrivaled,
Founded by WNBA greats Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart [Unrivaled] is made by players, for players.
...Unrivaled, comprised of six club teams (Laces, Lunar Owls, Mist, Phantom, Rose and Vinyl), to life for an eight-week run in Miami.
“We had a search party to visit four, five different cities before landing on Miami and it was the heavy favorite among athletes on where they would want to spend their winters,” says league President Alex Bazzell.
...
“We're revolutionizing the game, and the standard of what it means to be a women's athlete,” says Collier.
They are. Hopefully, along with LIV, revolutionizing sports business.
Games are faster than what fans are used to seeing in the WNBA. With a smaller court, shorter quarters and one-shot fouls with a weighted scoring system based on the penalty, this is an agile game with a new set of rules designed to keep plays moving.
I didn't know that.
Fans from cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and New York City are skipping town (and freezing temps) to catch a game. The fan experience begins the moment tickets are scanned. A series of outdoor activations line the entrance into Wayfair Arena...
Wayfair Arena? Never heard of it. Where is "Wayfair Arena"?
...(where Bazzell says the league will stay for “at least the next two years.") A throne of Wilson basketballs, an Unrivaled step-and-repeat, and a life-size pop-a-shot (where fans can win merch) are some of the activities people can choose from before taking their seat in the 850-seat arena.
Looks good but you're going to have to do better than an 850-seat converted production studio in fucking MEDLEY, Florida.
[Unrivaled's] effect will reverberate across business, sports and travel.
It's going to have to reverberate beyond Medley, first.
