NBA owners extremely frustrated with WNBA revenue losses

The WNBA has experienced a wave of popularity and attention during the 2024 season, which would seem to bode well for the league moving forward. However, NBA owners have strong ties to the WNBA, and are not pleased with the financial bottom line of its sister league, despite recent events.

Before getting into the specifics of who is unhappy and why, it’s important to understand how vested the NBA is in the WNBA. Sportico reported in April 2024 that NBA owners own half of the WNBA’s equity, while SportsPro Media wrote in October 2024 that this number was closer to 60 percent. Regardless of whether the number falls, the NBA has a vested interest in women’s basketball.

As Sportico and others have covered, the NBA brought the WNBA to life in 1997. Whether it was in his old role as deputy commissioner, or in his current role as NBA commissioner, Adam Silver has been closely involved with the timeline of the WNBA’s development since its inception.

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Silver views the WNBA as part of the same discussion as the NBA. He told Sportico, “To the extent that we come up with ways to better present the game… in a way that makes it even that much more enticing to fans, there’s real opportunities to scale there when you put the NBA and the WNBA together.”

Despite the increased visibility of the WNBA during the 2024 season, the New York Post reported in October 2024 that the league recorded a $40 million loss. This can be taken as somewhat alarming, as the Daily Mail noted that Silver previously said the WNBA loses around $10 million each year.

NBA executives are not taking kindly to the continued financial hit. According to the New York Post, one NBA team official said, “The WNBA owes the NBA so much we won’t see any windfall for years.”

According to reports, it seems like New York Knicks owner James Dolan has been the most vocal about his complaints related to the WNBA. The New York Post quoted the executive as saying, “There’s a bunch of owners who see Dolan as their hero for pressing Silver on these questions but Silver is not giving us any answers.”

As The Mirror reported in May 2024, Dolan was the only member of the WNBA Board of Governors to cast a dissenting vote regarding the league’s expansion to Toronto, which is planned for 2026.

The Mirror also pointed out that Dolan seemed less than thrilled with the notion that NBA owners did not receive any money from the expansion fee Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob paid for another new WNBA team, the Golden State Valkyries. Historically, all NBA owners have benefitted monetarily when an expansion fee was paid to the NBA.

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NBA spokesman Mike Bass told the New York Post that “WNBA financials, including detailed reports on revenue and expenses, are shared with both the NBA’s and WNBA’s Board of Governors.”

James Dolan and the Madison Square Garden company decided to sell the New York Liberty in 2017 as covered by ESPN, after having owned them since the team’s inception in the mid 1990s. The team was purchased by the Tsai family in January 2019, who owns the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

Yahoo Sports reported in September 2024 that Dolan has been unhappy with the NBA’s business decisions for much of the year. He reportedly wrote three agitated memos to the NBA over various topics.

Dolan’s first letter confirmed his resignation from the league’s financial and advisory committees. His second memo discussed his disappointment with the new NBA media rights deal. Yahoo Sports wrote that his third memo was sent to further highlight his dissatisfaction about both points.

This is all a recipe for disaster, as Bleacher Report noted that WNBA players opted out of their CBA (collective bargaining agreement) in October 2024. They would be looking for higher salaries and a higher percentage of basketball related income, but NBA owners likely won’t take kindly to this, considering the overall losses the league experiences.

One reason why the WNBA perhaps lost more money in 2024 than it usually does was because of an advancement in team travel. For the first time ever, the league invested in charter flights for its teams. While this is a good thing for the players and the league, the cost to implement this was around $25 million a year, according to the Daily Mail.

As ESPN reported, the WNBA agreed to an 11-year, $2.2 billion television deal in the summer of 2024. This will kick in during the 2026 campaign.

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