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At a 1996 news conference, WNBA President Val Ackerman joined NBA Commissioner David Stern to announce plans to launch the WNBA. NBAE via Getty Images <\/p>\nThe WNBA is turning 30, but the first 30 seconds of its existence set the tone. The New York Liberty were playing at the Los Angeles Sparks, on June 21, 1997, at a place called the Fabulous Forum, in front of a crowd dying for equality. Then Jerry Buss showed up. <\/p>\n
He was there with his harem, his top three shirt buttons missing, his combover glistening, in a Forum Club that reeked of cigarette smoke and Dior Dune. An hour before tipoff, in walked Val Ackerman, the former University of Virginia basketball star handpicked by NBA Commissioner David Stern to oversee the WNBA\u2019s day-to-day. And Day 1 was supposed to be perfect.<\/p>\n
Buss, the Lakers and Sparks owner, couldn\u2019t have reveled more in the moment. He predicted a league full of superstars who\u2019d sell out arenas, film Gatorade commercials and rake in maybe million-dollar salaries some far-off day in the future. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd oh, by the way, Val, I want to introduce you to Miss April,\u201d Buss said. \u201cShe\u2019ll be singing the national anthem.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those who witnessed it \u2014 such as Rick Welts, former NBA executive vice president and CMO \u2014 all color escaped Ackerman\u2019s face. It was going to be over before it started, this league that would redefine women\u2019s sports, that would be \u201ca cause,\u201d that would change the narrative that men had pro basketball all to themselves. Their mantra was supposed to be \u201cWe Got Next,\u201d not “We Got Miss April.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t exactly the image we were trying to project this league to be, so Val and I retreated somewhere in the bowels of the Forum and called, as always, the fixer, Russ Granik,\u201d Welts said, referencing the NBA\u2019s deputy commissioner. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know what Russ did in the ensuing hour, but Miss April did not end up singing the national anthem.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, from Day 1 to this year\u2019s season opener on Day 10,549, the WNBA has always fought for its voice, an appropriate voice, and is now pitch perfect entering its 30th season. There are franchise valuations at roughly half-a-billion-dollars (the Liberty) and an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal that puts weekend games on NBC, ABC and CBS. There\u2019s a rich collective-bargaining agreement, max salaries of $1.4 million, better average ratings than the NHL and expansion that will boost the league to an all-time-high 18 teams by the end of the decade. Imagine where it is by the 2040s. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only been around since 2007,\u201d said Dallas Wings CEO and Managing Partner Greg Bibb. \u201cBut I always call the WNBA the 30-year overnight sensation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The league will spend this season celebrating that stark journey, with a media campaign highlighting 30 of the WNBA\u2019s most venerable moments over three decades. Phil Cook, the WNBA\u2019s CMO, called the anniversary \u201cmarketing gold,\u201d and has asked every team to nominate a signature memory. But here are eight other business moments that could sum up the rise, fall, teeter and rise again of the longest-tenured women\u2019s sports league in the U.S.:<\/p>\n
1) The 1996 Olympics test case. The NBA bankrolled USA Basketball\u2019s \u201996 national team to see if it could win gold in Atlanta, captivate the country and drum up interest for a WNBA. \u201cWe could use that as a lab,\u201d Ackerman said. Behind Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo, the U.S. women dominated, and Ackerman said Stern would joke he had the WNBA business plan in his front desk drawer, just waiting to unveil it. But Welts said Stern wouldn\u2019t greenlight the league unless his friend and associate at NBC, Dick Ebersol, would televise it. \u201cAnd Ebersol was like, \u2018We\u2019re in if you guys decide to do this,\u2019\u201d Welts said. NBC ended up doing Saturdays, ESPN did Mondays and Lifetime Fridays.<\/p>\n
At a 1996 news conference, WNBA President Val Ackerman joined NBA Commissioner David Stern to announce plans to launch the WNBA. NBAE via Getty Images <\/p>\n
2) Lifetime? Yes, Lifetime, even though it had never televised live sports. \u201cI remember being in a league meeting and they asked what we were thinking,\u201d said then-Lifetime Vice President Brian Donlon. \u201cI said, \u201cWell, we\u2019re going to do a talk show with a basketball game playing in the background.\u2019 And I thought their heads were going to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n
3) Speaking of that front desk drawer. Stern laid out a single-entity business model in which the NBA owned all eight of the inaugural franchises. Individual team owners operated the clubs, never paying a franchise fee or player salary. Their main job was to pick a name analogous to their NBA team (i.e. Rockets\/Comets, Suns\/Mercury). But Johnny Buss, Jerry\u2019s son, didn\u2019t want to name the Lakers\u2019 W team the Oceans \u2014 and randomly chose Sparks. <\/p>\n
The idea was to ride the NBA\u2019s coattails. Stern created \u201cambush-proof packages\u201d in which if the league signed with Coca-Cola, no team or player could do a deal with Pepsi. Stern technically didn\u2019t strong-arm the existing NBA sponsors, other than to say, \u201cIf you want to be part of the NBA, we\u2019d really like you to be part of the WNBA, too.\u201d But it was essentially the equivalent of: Buy one (the NBA), get one (the W) free. Sears, GM, Anheuser-Busch and Lee Jeans were among those who obliged, and the W earned about $30 million that first year in sponsorships.<\/p>\n
TV revenue lagged slightly behind. The networks weren\u2019t paying rights fees, simply sharing ad revenue with the league. Still, NBC did a 1.9 rating that first year and averaged 2 million households, with 12 games drawing at least 1 million viewers. On cable, ESPN did only a 0.8 rating, Lifetime just a 0.5 \u2014 maybe because everyone was going to games. Average attendance that first season was a fabulous 10,000. \u201cThe curiosity factor,\u2019\u201d Welts said. \u201cBut we made so many mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
4) Who wants in? They went too fast, too soon. The league expanded to 10 teams in Year 2, 12 teams in Year 3 and 16 in Year 4. \u201cIt was the early success, which made owners say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019d like one of these,\u2019\u201d Ackerman said. With Magic\/Miracle, Heat\/Sol, Hornets\/Sting, Pistons\/Shock, Kings\/Monarchs, Timberwolves\/Lynx, it was still largely a brother-sister template \u2014 the idea being men would fill the arena in the winter, women in the summer. They also had the right kind of anthem singers now (Whitney Houston at the \u201999 All-Star Game at MSG), and Stern began peddling teams to NBA owners for about $10 million or less, loosening sales restrictions and allowing them to sell against national sponsors. Players \u2014 whose max salary that first season was $50,000 \u2014 wanted more of the pie and formed a union. The W\u2019s mantra was to be the fifth major league, behind the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Then reality kicked in.<\/p>\n
5) Who wants out? Originally, NBA owners were only paying for player housing. Now, they were responsible for the kitchen sink: salaries, arena bills, sponsorships. Houston was the microcosm. Winners of the league\u2019s first four titles, the Comets had just two ticket staffers; the Rockets, 22. In December of \u201908, the Comets folded and former Liberty star Lobo remembers thinking the league was going under, too. \u201cOwners were, \u2018Nice try guys, but it\u2019s time to put up the white flag here,\u2019\u201d Welts said. \u201cAnd Stern just absolutely refused to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
6) Golden State. The Rockers had folded in Cleveland, too, because they wanted to concentrate on some rookie named LeBron James. The Bulls\u2019 Jerry Reinsdorf and the Mavericks\u2019 Mark Cuban told Stern no thank you. But the one that had everyone shaking their heads was the Warriors, whose owner Chris Cohan could not be persuaded. In a no-brainer, inclusive market that adored Stanford women\u2019s basketball, there should have been a team in the Bay Area, as broadcaster and former Laker Mychal Thompson suggested, called the \u201cthe Warri-hers.\u201d But a hard no.<\/p>\n
7) Saviors. Money \u2014 or sponsorships \u2014 talks. The league still had a million-dollar deal with Discover Card and a multimillion, multiyear deal with AOL. \u201cI mean, there were people there pushing the envelope and supporting,\u201d said former W President Donna Orender. \u201cBut it was hard-fought to get there.\u201d Social media talks, too \u2014 actually, it screams \u2014 and Instagram\u2019s launch in 2010 further helped the cause. From 2010-24, the W settled into a comfortable 12 teams. But the true turnaround might have been the Wubble in 2020, during the pandemic, when sequestered fans at home were dying for live sports \u2014 and stumbled again on the W, stumbled on Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and the champion Storm. \u201cAnd then who would\u2019ve guessed someone like Caitlin Clark would come along?\u201d Orender said.<\/p>\n
8) G.O.A.T.s. As part of the 30-year celebration, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert\u2019s league will unveil throwback uniforms for select games involving the Liberty, Mercury and Sparks \u2014 three of the original franchises \u2014 using a 1997-branded ball. Another anniversary plan is a brand campaign with Swoopes leading a pack of G.O.A.T.s (and actual goats) through the streets of New York.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7EX4BAVGLVAFLP2VGW4X77FNCU.JPG\")
A WNBA brand campaign around the 30th season features Sheryl Swoopes leading a pack of G.O.A.T.s (and actual goats) through the streets of New York. WNBA <\/p>\n
Speaking of brands, the WNBA is brimming with them. The newest two this season are Procter & Gamble and Mars, making it 13 total sponsors with no ties to the NBA: Ally Financial, Delta, Deloitte, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, Bumble, Coach, Mielle, State Street Investment Management, Spy, Skechers and Reebok. No more buy one, get one free.<\/p>\n
All the league\u2019s wishes \u2014 and Jerry Buss\u2019 premonitions \u2014 have seemingly come true. There are Gatorade commercials (see Clark), roughly 30 players making million-dollar-plus salaries, sold-out buildings.<\/p>\n
And the No. 1 grossing team in the league on Day 10,549 happens to be \u2026<\/p>\n
Golden State. You can\u2019t make this stuff up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is turning 30, but the first 30 seconds of its existence set the tone. The New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,14803,39932,82,630,4143],"class_list":["post-641181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-portfolio","tag-print","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641181","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=641181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}