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The lobby of the Seattle Storm’s training facility gives off the vibe of an independent WNBA franchise \u2014 more of a home than a corporate office. Seattle Storm Seeking bigger digs<\/p>\nWNBA franchises aren\u2019t haves and have-nots on the court, but look up in the stands. Look up at the suites. Does their arena have any? Are they full? Look courtside, at the first 10 rows of seats. Are fans there being waited on hand and foot? Look over at the signage. Is it permanent? Is it virtual? Is it everywhere? <\/p>\n
Now look over at the Connecticut Sun fan base, all up in arms that their team has been hijacked by Houston. Now look over at WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert late last June, handing expansion franchises to NBA owners in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia \u2014 all of them equipped with enormous venues, premium seating and loaded front-office staffs.<\/p>\n
Now look over at the owners, CEOs or presidents for the Chicago Sky, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream \u2014 the last five pre-expansion independent franchises in the league with the Sun on their way out. Now look at their mostly smallish arenas. Look over and wonder what they\u2019re thinking. It\u2019s probably what everyone else is thinking: that the future of the WNBA is in NBA buildings with NBA ownership groups. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, if it walks like a duck and, what is it, quacks like a duck?\u201d said Sky CEO and President Adam Fox. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot to it. So I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a trend. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a coincidence. I don\u2019t want to pretend to be \u2014 here\u2019s a reference: a Kreskin \u2014 to be able to know what it is. But I read the tea leaves just like everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what are the tea leaves saying?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we have to be really good and that we\u2019re competing against \u2026 Well, we\u2019re going to punch over our weight class,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWe need to. And we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WNBA, about to enter its 30th season, has gone full circle \u2014 or at least full triangle. Although Engelbert said last week \u201cwe have no bias\u201d against non-NBA affiliated franchises, a league that began in 1997 with eight teams operated by NBA owners \u2014 and then temporarily went an alternative direction \u2014 seems headed straight back to the future. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be a trend,\u201d said Ginny Gilder, co-owner of the Storm. \u201cWhat it says is that NBA owners finally see the value prop, and honestly, they\u2019re the ones who own these world-class arenas. So, if you were going to expand, wouldn\u2019t you want the locations that have the world-class arenas to expand into women\u2019s sports? At a certain level, it just makes sense for what\u2019s best for the W.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what it means for those five independents \u2014 plus the two new hybrid independent ownership groups in Portland and Toronto \u2014 is an all-hands-on-deck mentality, higher ticket prices and perhaps arena reboots. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge, but, I mean, we\u2019ve got three championships in five years,\u201d said Aces President Nikki Fargas.<\/p>\n
Premium differences<\/p>\n
Their journeys are unique, all five of them, starting with the winding road of the Wings. They launched as the Detroit Shock, owned by Pistons governor Bill Davidson, before being sold to American Fidelity Corp. CEO Bill Cameron in 2009 following Davidson\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of NBA teams that just threw up their hands, saying: \u2018We\u2019re not going to do the WNBA anymore,\u2019\u201d said Rick Welts, a former NBA executive vice president. \u201cThey weren\u2019t making money and were thinking: \u2018It\u2019s taking assets away from my NBA enterprise; I don\u2019t know if I believe in the future.\u2019 So teams went to independent operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cameron high-tailed the Shock to Tulsa for seven seasons before relocating in 2016 to Dallas \u2014 where then-Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had never been dying for a team.<\/p>\n
At the time, joining the Mavs in the city-owned 20,000-seat American Airlines Center was preposterous. It was too cavernous. But the College Park Center at nearby University of Texas at Arlington had a quaint 6,251-seat venue and training facility. The Wings would go the small and mighty route, with no idea Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd would be arriving later.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the world of an independent franchise. When the Indiana Fever drafted Caitlin Clark, they had the Pacers\u2019 NBA infrastructure and a PS&E ticketing staff of roughly 50 people to handle the thousands of inbound calls. The Wings\u2019 ticketing staff was 13 people.<\/p>\n
The Wings overcame the shortfall, although CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb said his staff was complemented by College Park Center\u2019s ticketing partner, AXS, for individual sales. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like everyone trying to buy a single ticket is calling our office,\u201d Bibb said.<\/p>\n
But then the games started. College Park Center was no Gainbridge Fieldhouse or Barclays Center or Chase Center, where the Golden State Valkyries (the league\u2019s No. 1 revenue team, ahead of the No. 2 Fever and the No. 3 Liberty) have multiple rows of licensed courtside seats, luxury suites, permanent signage, digital signage and a league-high 6,000 premium seats overall. <\/p>\n
But the Wings, according to Bibb, have 270 premium seats, and their challenge \u2014 like the other independent franchises who don\u2019t own or control their middling-sized buildings \u2014 is their ongoing hunt for more. <\/p>\n
As of now, at the compact College Park Center, Bibb said their premium consists of a courtside club with 198 seats and three suites that hold 24 people each. \u201cThat\u2019s just one of the realities of the building,\u201d he said. \u201cThe premium doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d <\/p>\n
The team does control the temporary signage and the intervenable signage there. But, otherwise, the Wings\u2019 best solutions are their recent high-end sponsorships with CVS and Geico, and their impending move two years from now to renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium. <\/p>\n
At that newly renovated city-owned building (roughly 8,500 seats), the Wings will at least be the primary tenant, with increased signage and premium to sell, plus a revenue-sharing package for parking, food and beverage. Ticket demand should also meteorize prices, though Bibb said if he knew then what he knows now, he might have pushed for a higher seating capacity.<\/p>\n
The lobby of the Seattle Storm’s training facility gives off the vibe of an independent WNBA franchise \u2014 more of a home than a corporate office. Seattle Storm Seeking bigger digs<\/p>\n
Either way, the fallback for now is the Wings playing marquee games at American Airlines Center, at which Bibb said their gate for the Fever game last year was 10 times better in round numbers than College Park Center.<\/p>\n
The Sky (capacity 10,387 at DePaul\u2019s Wintrust Arena), the Aces (capacity 12,000 at Michelob Ultra Arena) and the Dream (capacity 3,500 at Gateway Center Arena) are in the same predicament, searching out premium and knocking on the doors of larger venues for help. <\/p>\n
At Wintrust, Fox said he has a center court premium section with access to food and beverage, plus an elevated 100-level club, and has taken advantage of it as best he can. In 2025, due to the rising resale market, the franchise raised prices on full-season courtside seats 144% to $11,000 and its 18-game 200-level seat packages 265% to $985 \u2014 partly why industry data shows the Sky\u2019s average gate was fourth best in the league last year at roughly $650,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupply and demand is real,\u201d Fox said. \u201cAnd sometimes there\u2019s that Studio 54 effect: you want to get those better seats. And that helps the price of those seats be a little bit more, and people want to be in them and there aren\u2019t as many of them. It does help.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the upside of having only 770 premium seats– the secondary market elevates the prices. But it pales to what the Bulls can do with premium at United Center, which is why the Sky (who arrived as an independent expansion franchise in 2006 because Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf wasn\u2019t interested) are vetting the Bulls\u2019 arena.<\/p>\n
The Sky\u2019s lease at Wintrust is up in two years, and Fox said their two sellouts last year in United Center and their two upcoming games there this season will be the data points to contemplate a full-time move into the NBA building. In the interim, the Sky will hire the Bulls\u2019 in-game entertainment group for their Wintrust games this season, mimicking what an NBA-affiliated team would do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don\u2019t have the same institutional overall resources [as NBA-owned teams],\u201d Fox said. \u201cIf an NBA big brother is putting 15 to 20,000 people in the arena every night, it\u2019s a great chance to message people throughout the year and create the sort of synergy that exists between the W team and the NBA team. So we have to find other ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dream\u2019s strategy, to counteract playing in the league\u2019s smallest building and having fewer than 200 premium seats, is scheduling a franchise-high five games this season at State Farm Arena, operated by Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler. In Las Vegas, the Aces will move three games to 18,000-seat T-Mobile Arena, continuing a trend that Engelbert said is paramount: \u201cthe ability to upsize to other arenas.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In other words, she wants teams to have the big arena option and points to this year\u2019s two expansion teams (both of whom are technically independents but have ties to NBA owners). The Tempo, for instance \u2014 whose primary controlling owner is Toronto Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum \u2014 will play much of its first season in 8,700-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum while also farming out games to Toronto\u2019s Scotiabank Arena (capacity 19,800), Montreal\u2019s Bell Centre (capacity 22,114) and Vancouver\u2019s Rogers Arena (capacity 19,700). \u201cThey\u2019ll have a whole country there,\u201d Engelbert said.<\/p>\n
The Portland Fire — whose governor, Lisa Bhathal Merage, is a minority owner of the NBA\u2019s Kings — don\u2019t have a whole country, but has the Trail Blazers arena, the 19,393-seat Moda Center. <\/p>\n
For that reason, Engelbert is adamant that non-NBA ownership groups have a chance going forward in expansion (though an owner-controlled building with more than 10,000-seats would presumably help), and said the league looks at psychographics and metrics such as population, Black population, TV households, median household, income, women\u2019s NCAA Tournament viewership and USA Basketball viewership for both men and women. <\/p>\n
The point is, there has to be potential for growth \u2014 like what\u2019s happened in Las Vegas. The Aces were once the NBA-affiliated Utah Starzz (1997-2002) and the San Antonio Silver Stars (2003-17) before coming to Vegas as an independent in 2018. Donna Orender, the league president from 2005-2010, said NBA owners were fleeing the W at the time because the NBA was a \u201chuge currency\u2019\u2019 and the owners\u2019 thought, \u201cThat\u2019s going to take more of my attention than this little WNBA team, which I\u2019m not sure where it\u2019s going to go. And the independent owners, they didn\u2019t know where it was going to go, either, but they knew that\u2019s what they wanted.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
So the Aces might as well have been an expansion team. When Fargas arrived in 2021, the franchise had just eight front-office employees (\u201cI chuckle because we made it to the semifinals with eight,\u2019\u2019 Fargas said) and now have 37. They also now have high-end sponsorships (Ally Financial, IPSY), a local TV deal (with Scripps), an NFL owner (Mark Davis) and $13,000 premium packages \u2014 all to offset their arena size. <\/p>\n
On paper, they actually have it better than some NBA-affiliated franchises, such as the Mystics who play in city-owned 4,200-seat CareFirst Arena in Southeast D.C., which contains one open-air premium club called \u201cAbove the Rim,\u201d and only about 300 total premium seats. And while the Sparks just became an NBA-affiliated team themselves — when their owner Mark Walter bought the Lakers — their average gate last season at Crypto.com Arena was bottom half of the league.<\/p>\n
Where the Mystics and Sparks make up ground is in partnership revenue, where they rank at or near the top half of the league. That\u2019s the crucial NBA-affiliated advantage: enterprise-wide allocation.<\/p>\n
But the independent franchise that most replicates the NBA-affiliated model is the Storm, which plays in the Kraken\u2019s Climate Pledge Arena (capacity 18,300) and, according to data, averaged an independent-high 8,300 tickets sold last year and the league\u2019s fifth-best average gate at $530,000.<\/p>\n
The Storm aren\u2019t primary tenants, but, according to Gilder, the team can monetize the arena\u2019s premium Moet Club and team shop. CEO and President Alisha Valavanis also said they sell premium courtside seating, a number of premium VIP dining experiences and temporary signage in specific crevices of the arena, not to mention a small number of suites on a single-game basis. Their ticket renewal rate is roughly 90% YoY, near the top of the league. All without a brother NBA franchise.<\/p>\n
In the front office, they employ an NBA-like eight C-suite executives \u2014 CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CCO, CSO, CHRO and GM. Alongside the Aces, they were the first WNBA team to build an upscale practice facility, with tailored signs inside that say \u201cSuccess Doesn\u2019t Travel Solo\u201d and \u201cDo What You Love.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we were building a practice facility, and we ended up building a home,\u201d Gilder said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the other side of the story: the mom-and-pop charm of these last few independent franchises. Gilder, the owner, has literally dog-sat former player Jewell Loyd\u2019s dogs, and has her staff help players with their taxes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe only have our team to care about here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Or as Fargas put it, as she prepares to hand the Aces another set of championship rings, \u201cI don\u2019t see the league getting rid of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
HOW THE INDEPENDENT FRANCHISES CAME TO BE:<\/p>\n
Aces: Utah Starzz (1997-2002, owned by Jazz), San Antonio Silver Stars (2003-2017, owned by Spurs), Aces (2018-current).<\/p>\n
Dream: expansion, 2008.<\/p>\n
Sky: expansion, 2006.<\/p>\n
Storm: expansion, 2000 (owned by the Sonics). Sold in 2008 to Dawn Trudeau, Lisa Brummel and Ginny Gilder after Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
Sun: Orlando Miracle (1999-2002, owned by Magic), Sun (2003-2026), Houston (2027, sold to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta). <\/p>\n
Wings: Detroit Shock (1998-2009, owned by Pistons), Tulsa Shock (2010-15, owned by Bill Cameron), Wings (2016-present, owned by Cameron).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA franchises aren\u2019t haves and have-nots on the court, but look up in the stands. Look up at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,3458,28459,39932,82,630],"class_list":["post-631901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-in-depth","tag-print","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}