The WNBA charged Golden State's ownership group $200 million for its fifteenth franchise, double the $100 million Las Vegas paid in 2021 and triple what Atlanta coughed up in 2020. The league is now fielding calls from groups in Houston, Nashville, and Philadelphia, each expecting to pay $225 million or more when Commissioner Cathy Engelbert opens the next expansion window in early 2025.
The NWSL crossed its own threshold this winter when Boston's ownership syndicate—led by Jennifer Epstein and a collection of private equity principals from Vista and Carlyle—paid $108 million for the city's fourteenth team. That's 4.3x what Louisville's club sold for in 2019 and roughly 12x the league's average franchise value as recently as 2020. The league has logged three ownership changes in the past nine months, each at prices 20-30% above the prior comp. San Diego is expected to announce its franchise award in Q4 2024, with serious groups circling at $125 million minimum.
The math works because attendance, media rights, and sponsorship revenue are all rising in tandem. WNBA regular-season attendance jumped 17% year-over-year in 2024, and the league's new media deal with Disney, Amazon, and NBCUniversal is worth $200 million annually starting in 2025—nearly 3x the prior contract. NWSL games on CBS and Prime Video are averaging 450,000 viewers, up from 180,000 two years ago. Nike just committed $60 million over five years for NWSL kit rights, and Gatorade moved its entire women's sports budget—north of $40 million annually—into WNBA and NWSL assets.
Institutional allocators who wouldn't touch women's sports three years ago are now running models on franchise IRRs. The typical buyer profile has shifted from celebrity-backed vanity plays to family offices and PE shops treating these as core holds. One Midwestern fund manager told portfolio advisors his NWSL position is outperforming two MLS stakes purchased the same year, though he declined to share internal figures. The secondary market for minority stakes is pricing WNBA teams at 10-12x revenue, a multiple that would've seemed delusional in 2020 but now lands within striking distance of what second-tier MLS and NHL franchises command.
The risk is that valuations are running ahead of operating cash flow. Most WNBA franchises still lose money at the team level, relying on league revenue-sharing and ownership's willingness to cover shortfalls. NWSL clubs are approaching breakeven, but only a handful—Portland, Seattle, maybe Kansas City—actually print black ink. Investors are betting the media-rights curve keeps bending upward and that sponsorship dollars follow eyeballs without the usual lag. If the 2025 media deal underperforms or attendance plateaus, the $200 million Golden State paid starts looking rich.
Watch for WNBA expansion announcements in Houston and Nashville by March 2025, and for NWSL's San Diego franchise award in late Q4 2024. The league is also reviewing Nashville and Tampa applications, though those decisions likely slip to 2025. If any of those prices come in below $200 million for WNBA or $110 million for NWSL, the market will notice.
Golden State's ownership group includes Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also control the NBA's Warriors, making this the first dual-league setup under shared principals since Liberty and Knicks formally separated business operations. Their willingness to write a $200 million check is the clearest signal yet that serious operators see women's sports franchises as institutional-grade assets, not charity projects dressed up with glossy investor decks.
The takeaway
WNBA and NWSL franchises are trading at **10-12x revenue** as institutional buyers treat them like core holdings, not vanity plays.
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