When the Unrivaled women\u2019s basketball league launched last winter, it brought numerous benefits to the players involved.<\/p>\n
There was the ability to make money playing on home soil during the WNBA offseason, which became even more critical after Brittney Griner\u2019s detention<\/a> in Russia. And there was a lot of money to make, both in base pay and prizes, thanks to a slew of big-name investors<\/a>. <\/p>\n There was the fun of playing a three-on-three format. And with games taking place near Miami, there was the chance to spend a few warm weeks in south Florida.<\/p>\n For the 2026 edition, organizers wanted to take it on tour. As they considered venues, Philadelphia became a surprising candidate, and not just because of the different weather. <\/p>\n But a group of well-connected local advocates got to work behind the scenes, and on Thursday their work officially paid off. Xfinity Mobile Arena was announced as Unrivaled\u2019s first tour stop, with two games to be played here on Jan. 30.<\/p>\n The group is led by actor and comedian Wanda Sykes; her wife Alex Sykes, who has experience in the sports and business worlds; and lawyer Ashley Lunkenheimer. They call themselves the Philadelphia Sisters<\/a>, and they spent years working to get a WNBA expansion team here. <\/a><\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: How Unrivaled helped Kahleah Copper find joy in basketball again<\/a><\/p>\n Their payoff with Unrivaled came from a classically Philadelphian move. The Sykeses are investors in the league, and at one of last season\u2019s games, they were sitting next to commissioner Micky Lawler when she started talking about potential tour sites.<\/p>\n \u201cShe mentioned other cities, large cities, around us and did not mention Philadelphia,\u201d said Alex Sykes, a Paris native who has lived here long enough to have picked up local skills. \u201cAnd we were sitting next to her and said, \u2018Hi, how about Philadelphia? Come on, this is the best city in the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Parker\u2019s sales pitch<\/p>\n In fact, Sykes had a much bigger sales pitch to offer: She had connections to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>, a longtime backer of bringing a WNBA team here, plus potential sponsors \u2014 and connections at Comcast-Spectacor to get the city\u2019s biggest basketball venue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had all these connections, and that\u2019s what we told Micky and the group,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cEventually they trusted us to actually have a first tour here, which we did back in May.\u201d <\/p>\n Unfortunately, it was pouring rain that day. But the visitors liked what they saw, which included meetings with Parker and other local stakeholders. By August, word started to get around town that something might be happening.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Inside Marsha\u2019s, Philly\u2019s first women\u2019s sports bar<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey really rolled out the red carpet,\u201d Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re hosting so many marquee events next year in the sports world \u2014 whether it be the [men\u2019s soccer] World Cup<\/a>, or the MLB All-Star Game, PGA Championship, [men\u2019s basketball] NCAA tournament \u2014 for us it just became clear that we had such immense support, from Mayor Parker all the way down to the Sports Commission, that when we did this, it was going to be done the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n Lunkenheimer praised Parker\u2019s involvement in the pitch.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that Unrivaled saw that the city, and what we\u2019ve been doing to try to bring the WNBA here, had also built just a huge community of people invested in getting the people of Philadelphia, the children of Philadelphia, the girls of Philadelphia \u2014 and the boys \u2014 to have professional women\u2019s sports,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I do think that [Parker] was able to convey that, and Alex and Wanda and all of us that they met with were able to say, \u2018We\u2019re hungry, and you\u2019ll have more to accomplish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Aubrey Plaza watched a WNBA game wearing a shirt that repped Philly. It sold out fast.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a risk it to take the event to Xfinity Mobile Arena, instead of a smaller venue like the Liacouras Center. But Comcast was on board, and the potential reward is higher if they can make it work.<\/p>\n Star players taking part<\/p>\n There should be no lack of star power on the court. Topping the list of the 48 players<\/a> across the league\u2019s eight teams are Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier (who\u2019s married to Bazzell), the league\u2019s co-founders. Though Collier has an ankle injury that knocked her out of the WNBA playoffs \u2014 and her Minnesota Lynx as a result<\/a> \u2014 she\u2019ll likely be here in some form.<\/p>\n Other big names include Paige Bueckers, Brittney Griner, Arike Ogunbowale, and Chelsea Gray. <\/p>\n Natasha Cloud, Kahleah Copper, and Maddy Siegrist have local ties, and you can be sure they\u2019ve given their fellow players an earful about what it will be like to come here. Copper might arrive with a WNBA title, as she and Harrisburg\u2019s Alyssa Thomas just helped the Phoenix Mercury reach the Finals by upsetting the No. 1-seed Lynx.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Women\u2019s soccer teaches the WNBA a history lesson about when CBA talks go wrong<\/a><\/p>\n The top stars not taking part as of now are Caitlin Clark and A\u2019ja Wilson, who weren\u2019t in last winter either; and Sabrina Ionescu, who was and decided to not join this time. <\/p>\n There is one caveat: since just four of the league\u2019s eight teams will play here, not all the players will show up. The teams will be set when the season schedule is announced in November. But on the whole, the marquee is plenty big.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re obviously bullish on the star power of player we\u2019re able to bring,\u201d Bazzell said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it scared us. I think when we do these things, we want to do them correctly. We have no idea just yet what the turnout is going to be, but we do believe in where the sport\u2019s going [and] in our star power.\u201d<\/p>\n Goals beyond hoops<\/p>\n Basketball isn\u2019t the only sport the Sisters are interested in.<\/p>\n \u201cAlex [Sykes] said the other day, \u2018I\u2019d love to see five women\u2019s sports teams mascots in addition to the five men\u2019s [teams],\u201d Lunkheimer said. \u201cThere\u2019s big and small opportunities with women\u2019s sports that this community is living for. But to start with basketball is perfect, right? Because we are a basketball city.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: They were stars on the Philly hoops scene and now play overseas. Could WNBA expansion call them home?<\/a><\/p>\n They both know the math is a stretch, but it\u2019s not impossible. Along with the WNBA, there\u2019s the National Women\u2019s Soccer League<\/a>, the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League<\/a>, and League One Volleyball<\/a> \u2014 a sport that\u2019s become very popular at the college and high school levels.<\/p>\n The Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League<\/a> plans to lauch next year, and in August held a tryout day in D.C. Philadelphia\u2019s Mo\u2019ne Davis<\/a>, still popular years after her Little League heroics, was among the participants.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have in front of you passionate Philadelphians, moms that just were wanting to actually stay here and show their kids women\u2019s professional sports in the city, not going to bigger cities elsewhere,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cPeople want this so much to happen now in Philadelphia, we realize \u2014 people are coming to us with ideas.\u201d <\/p>\n Lunkenheimer is one of those mothers. She spoke about taking her children to north Jersey to Gotham FC, and to Brooklyn to watch the Liberty.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Yolanda Laney, godmother of Philly hoops, wants the city\u2019s new WNBA team to invest in local girls\u2019 basketball<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe have the privilege to be able to travel,\u201d she said, \u201cto take our kids to to see women professional athletes. There are so many kids in this community who don\u2019t have that opportunity. And it does matter that women are playing at a professional level, and it does matter that our girls see it \u2014 but it also matters that our boys see it.\u201d <\/p>\n And as Sykes noted, a lot of men watch women\u2019s sports. U.S. Soccer has long sold its women\u2019s national team jerseys in men\u2019s sizes, and the WNBA said this year its fan base has been 57% men and 43% women. The league\u2019s audience of boys under age 18 has more than doubled<\/a> over the past four years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, because we feel like it\u2019s girls and women going to the games,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cIt\u2019s really almost 50-50, if not more men. But to us, it\u2019s truly about basketball fans.\u201d<\/p>\n