Unrivaled is the next big thing in women’s sports, setting a new standard for how professional women athletes should be treated in their respective leagues. WNBA icons Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart co-founded the new 3v3 league, hoping to pave the way for the future of women in sports. Having started its inaugural season on Friday, January 17, the league comprises 36 WNBA players across six teams. The season will last from January to March.
The WNBA season lasts about five months, from May through October. Due to the long off-season, players typically go overseas to ensure they have a steady income and proper conditioning during their time off. With the arrival of this new league, these players can stay in the U.S. while earning a salary above the average base WNBA salary.
Since the league’s announcement, conversations regarding its status as a potential competitor to the WNBA have emerged. With the league on the cusp of renewing its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Phoenix Mercury star and Unrivaled Phantom Basketball Club member Brittney Griner feels as though this new league is putting pressure on the WNBA. She also stated her hopes that the new league will bring in more views and push them to “do better” as a professional league.
Courtney Vandersloot of the New York Liberty feels that Unrivaled has everything a player could need and that the league’s player association plans to ensure the new CBA, intended to be enacted at the end of the 2025 season, includes proper care. Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell feels that the new league is merely an extension of the WNBA’s season and won’t impose on the national league in any way.
When looking at player compensation, the WNBA pales in comparison to Unrivaled. With a salary pool of $8 million total, the average salary is about $222,000 for the nine-week season. The average base salary for the WNBA players was less than $120,000 this past season. The salary Unrivaled players will receive is the highest amount seen by any professional women’s sports league; it also exceeds the WNBA’s maximum base salary by about $6,000.
The salary isn’t the only benefit of being part of Unrivaled, each of the 36 players can earn up to 15% equity, a standard that the WNBA doesn’t live up to. As a national league that has very recently skyrocketed in viewership, players should have the opportunity to profit from their sport, especially considering the gap between their NBA equivalents.
Collier said she felt as though everyone was profiting off of the rise of women’s sports, except the players themselves. This inequity exists across leagues in all sports, but Unrivaled was created with the hope of changing that.
Flau’jae Johnson and Paige Bueckers have signed an NIL deal with Unrivaled as they finish their collegiate careers and prepare to go pro. They are the only college students who will have equity, alongside JuJu Watkins of Southern California, who invested in the league.
When it comes to childcare, the most recent CBA (2020) instated multiple policies that support players with children; these include a $5,000 annual stipend, guaranteed paid maternity leave, and $20,000 annually to help players who have been in the league for at least eight seasons with costs related to surrogacy, adoption, fertility treatment or egg-freezing.
Unrivaled provides a ton of perks for its players, including a fully stocked Sephora makeup room, professional chefs, and childcare services for players. Monetary support is arguably compensated for through the increased salary, and Collier and Stewart both have children themselves. As they are also Unrivaled players, they ensured that nannies would be staffed at the venue before, during and after games.
A new women’s league is a great way to start the new year, especially with the phenomenal year women’s sports had in 2024. Unrivaled will undoubtedly impact the future of the WNBA and hopefully raise the standards for the treatment of female athletes everywhere.
This story was written by Lilly Peacock. She can be reached at [email protected] or @lillypeacockMU on Twitter/X.
