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FILE – Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) in action during a WNBA basketball game against the Chicago Sky in Indianapolis, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo\/AJ Mast, File)<\/p>\n
Mo\u2019ne Davis was preparing for a Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League scrimmage when the WNBA and its players agreed to a landmark collective bargaining agreement last month.<\/p>\n
Davis, who rose to stardom as a little league pitching sensation, followed developments as WNBA players negotiated historic salaries. As she enters the inaugural season of the WPBL, Davis sees those record gains as a signal to the next generation of women\u2019s leagues about what is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWanting to be a WNBA player growing up and seeing it not be as huge as it is now,\u201d Davis said, \u201cand just seeing the growth \u2014 it\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m excited for what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the WNBA begins its season under the new CBA, emerging women\u2019s sports leagues like baseball and hockey are looking at that progress as a promising roadmap for growth. At the same time, leaders of those startup leagues recognize the WNBA\u2019s growth was shaped by decades of player advocacy, work stoppage threats and athletes playing elsewhere to supplement their incomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe WNBA is definitely an example of a league that had to grind and keep showing its worth over and over,\u201d said Justine Siegal, co-founder of the WPBL, which debuts in August. \u201cThe recognition is overdue and well-deserved. For us as a new women\u2019s pro league, we don\u2019t see it as the beginning. We see it is we\u2019re part of a momentum that fans want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newer women\u2019s leagues try to capitalize on current boom<\/p>\n
The WNBA\u2019s new seven-year CBA will raise the league\u2019s salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million in the first year of the deal. It will also improve player experience with codified charter flights, first-class travel accommodations and expanded mental health support. Perhaps most notably, the deal marks a new era of player compensation, with stars like four-time MVP A\u2019ja Wilson making more than $1 million for the first time in WNBA history.<\/p>\n
Those milestones are, in part, the result of surging popularity in women\u2019s basketball, with stars like Caitlin Clark becoming household names and driving up viewership. After securing a landmark media rights deal in 2024, players recognized a pivotal opportunity to demand a bigger share of that growing revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can kind of show (other leagues) what worked and obviously the strength in numbers,\u201d said New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart. \u201cRealizing the value of your league and your teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newer leagues are still far from the financial scale of leagues like the WNBA or National Women\u2019s Soccer League, which is in its 14th year and has benefitted from years of equal pay efforts. A recent report published by the accounting firm Deloitte said soccer and basketball are expected to be the top revenue-generating women\u2019s sports in 2026, with each accounting for 35% of overall revenues.<\/p>\n
Still newer leagues are watching closely as they try and capitalize on the current boom those established organizations helped create.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot for us to take away from both the player solidarity that led to the deal and the substance of the deal itself,\u201d said, Malaika Underwood, executive director of the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League Players Association, in an email. \u201cIn many ways, this new CBA has raised important benchmarks for what women athletes should expect across professional sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growth won\u2019t happen overnight<\/p>\n
She added while that kind of growth won\u2019t happen overnight for the PWHL \u2014 which is concluding its third season\u2013 the league believes it has set itself up for similar success. That has been evident in how the PWHL has blown past initial attendance and revenue projections since its 2024 launch. After adding two franchises last year, the eight-team PWHL is preparing to expand by as many as four more for next season.<\/p>\n
Other leagues, like Women\u2019s Elite Rugby (WER), are learning from WNBA players\u2019 unified approach to advocacy, while recognizing their own unique financial hurdles.<\/p>\n
The WNBA, entering its 30th season, is partially owned by the NBA, and while the PWHL isn\u2019t financially tied to the NHL, it has been able to leverage partnerships through marketing and shared venues.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the case for WER, which is entering its second season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a billionaire benefactor who was willing to write a big check and say, \u2018Let\u2019s get this going no matter what the cost,’\u201d said Phil Camm, the league\u2019s chief commercial officer. \u201cSo we can learn from things, but we have to approach it from a very different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the current investment in the women\u2019s sports ecosystem, David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University, predicts it won\u2019t be long before women\u2019s athletes in rugby, baseball and other emerging leagues become household names and enjoy the same benefits that WNBA players long fought for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time you get to the end of the century, people are going look back to this point and go, \u2018I don\u2019t get it, why weren\u2019t you showing it on television?’\u201d Berri said. \u201c\u2018Why wasn\u2019t it obvious that this was a good idea?\u2019 It\u2019ll seem obvious at that point that you should have done that.’\u201d<\/p>\n
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