Rookie superstars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are credited with the WNBA’s massive surge in popularity, but neither of its teams (the Indiana Fever or the Chicago Sky) are the richest in the league.
Instead, the Dallas Wings, who are tied for last place this season, are the league’s most valuable franchise at $208 million, Front Office Sports reported Monday.
The value has reportedly increased by more than $100 million after two investors recently purchased a 1 percent stake in the team for $2.08 million.
Greg Bibb, CEO and co-owner of the Wings, sold the 1 percent stake to businessmen Jed Kaplan and Randy Eisenman.
In June, Sportico valued the Wings at $75 million, the 11th-highest value in the WNBA. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces were the No. 1 team at $140 million.
The WNBA’s most valuable team has been revealed, and it’s not Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever
The Dallas Wings are the richest franchise in the league, worth $208 million
The Wings are 6-19 this year, tied with the Washington Mystics.
“I would say the value of anything is what the market is willing to pay,” Bibb told Sports Business Journal.
“I can convincingly demonstrate why that $208 million figure is justifiable.”
Kaplan is a minority owner of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, and Eisenman founded a local hedge fund.
Their investment reportedly comes amid an off-the-field surge for the Wings, including a reported new television deal and securing a $19 million incentive for the Dallas-based franchise to move in 2026 from its current stadium, College Park Center at the University of Texas at Arlington, to a renovated Memorial Coliseum in downtown Dallas.
The Coliseum has a seating capacity of 8,500, compared to College Park Center, which has just over 6,000.
Meanwhile, the WNBA as a whole has seen a huge boost in ratings, merchandise sales and game attendance in 2024.
Clark and fellow rookie Angel Reese helped the WNBA record a 1,000 percent increase in merchandise sales.
The WNBA has also signed a new media rights package worth approximately $2.2 billion over 11 years.
A superstar rookie class, led by Clark and Reese, has given the sport a huge boost in 2024.
The league also signed a new media rights package in July worth about $2.2 billion over 11 years, Athletic reported.
That’s a net profit of about $200 million annually, roughly four times the WNBA’s current media deals with Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon, which are valued at $50 million annually.
Several WNBA records have already been broken this season alone; the league announced last month that more than 400,000 fans attended games in May, the most in 26 years.
Additionally, the league’s viewership has increased greatly since the arrival of Clark and Reese.
On ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and CBS, WNBA games are averaging 1.32 million viewers, which is nearly triple last season’s standard of 462,200 viewers.