The average WNBA franchise is now worth $427 million, up 59% year-over-year, according to Sportico's annual valuations released Friday. The Golden State Valkyries—who tipped off their inaugural season in 2025—became the league's first billion-dollar team at $1.05 billion, a figure that exceeds the going rate for several NHL and MLS clubs and sits within range of bottom-quartile NBA franchises.

The Valkyries entered the league for an expansion fee believed to be north of $50 million in 2023, when the average franchise was valued around $90 million. They share Chase Center with the Warriors, inherit that franchise's sponsorship machinery, and benefit from a local media deal structured around the NBA parent's infrastructure. The franchise's ascent to ten figures in under three years reflects the asset class repricing in real time: what worked as a satellite operation for NBA ownership groups is now attracting sovereign wealth interest and standalone private equity bids.

The league's collective bargaining agreement, ratified in January 2025, reset the salary floor and ceiling. The cap rose to $17.4 million per team for 2026, up from $12.8 million the prior season, with players receiving 51% of league revenue above certain gates. That structure forced ownership groups to re-underwrite unit economics. Several teams that previously operated as loss leaders for arena utilization or brand halo are now building discrete P&Ls. The Indiana Fever, valued at $385 million, saw a 340% increase in season-ticket revenue following Caitlin Clark's rookie campaign, creating margin room that didn't exist when the team sold for $10 million in 2015.

Expansion is the other tailwind. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert confirmed the league will add at least two franchises by 2028, with San Francisco (now filled by the Valkyries), Portland, and Toronto circulating as finalist cities. Expansion fees are expected to land between $100 million and $150 million per franchise based on informal bidding. That revenue flows to existing owners as a one-time distribution, creating immediate liquidity events that justify higher enterprise multiples when minority stakes trade hands. Three WNBA teams changed hands or took on new minority partners in the past eighteen months, and none of those transactions implied valuations below $300 million.

Media rights are the embedded option. The league's current broadcast deal with ESPN and CBS runs through 2027 and pays roughly $60 million annually. Early positioning for the next cycle suggests the league is targeting north of $200 million per year, though that figure depends on whether the NBA bundles WNBA rights into its next renewal or lets the women's league negotiate separately. If the latter happens, Amazon and Apple have both been positioned as interested. Reaching that range would roughly triple per-team media revenue, which would flow directly to the valuation denominator in a league where most revenue still comes from gates and local sponsors.

Watch the Portland expansion bid. Oregon businesswoman and Nike board member Michelle Peluso is assembling a group that includes Adidas North America executives and former Trail Blazers minority owners. A formal announcement is expected before the WNBA's June draft in New York. If that bid clears $125 million, the valuation floor for existing teams moves immediately.

The Los Angeles Sparks, valued at $675 million, are quietly fielding inquiries from a family office that already owns a piece of Angel City FC. The Sparks share ownership with the Lakers but operate under a separate cap table. If that stake moves in the next six months, the price will set the comp for any East Coast legacy franchise that enters the market before 2028.