While the WNBA is getting sellout crowds for the finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, the league’s owners will not be making a return on their investment for the foreseeable future, sources close to the situation said.
The NBA owns nearly 60 percent of the league.
When one combines the NBA owners’ personal stakes in WNBA teams and the WNBA itself, the amount rises to 75 percent, a source with direct knowledge of the numbers said.
The NBA team owners have invested hundreds of millions in the WNBA since its 1996 formation, per sources.
“The WNBA owes the NBA so much we won’t see any windfall for years,” an NBA team executive told The Post.
This season the WNBA will lose $40 million, a bit better than the $50 million forecast and reported by several media outlets months ago but still a loss, sources said.
Starting in the 2026 season, the WNBA will get up to $2.2 billion over 11 years as part of the new basketball media contracts.
That means likely at least a $100 million annual increase from what the WNBA currently makes from national media contracts, which is around $60 million.
The WNBA is also set to expand its regular-season and playoff schedule to generate more revenue.
But the players are expected to opt out of the current collective bargaining contract by a Nov. 1 deadline and, if they do, that means salaries are likely to rise, which would eat into that potential $60 million 2026 profit by the league — the $100M in television revenue turning the projected $40M loss into a $60M gain.
“We are not even getting any money from WNBA expansion fees,” the NBA team executive said. NBA owners do see money from NBA expansion fees.
That means when Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob last year agreed to pay a $50 million expansion fee over 10 years to launch a WNBA team, and Raptors minority owner Larry Tanenbaum this year paid $115 million for a Toronto team and a new practice center none of the proceeds went to the NBA owners.
Some NBA owners want more transparency from NBA commissioner Adam Silver about when they will get to see some return from the suddenly popular WNBA.
New York Knicks owner James Dolan has been pushing Silver behind the scenes, sources said.
“There’s a bunch of owners who see Dolan as their hero for pressing Silver on these questions but Silver is not giving us any answers,” the NBA team executive said.
Dolan declined comment.
“WNBA financials, including detailed reports on revenue and expenses, are shared with both the NBA’s and WNBA’s Board of Governors,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass told The Post, declining to comment.
“That is somewhat BS and they are consolidating it with NBA financials,” the team executive said. “By consolidating numbers, you don’t have to break out any of them.”
Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday averaged 1.34 million viewers on ABC, ESPN announced. Last season, the NBA Finals averaged a little more than 12 million viewers a game.
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