The WNBA will vote on three expansion franchises this quarter, each valued above $500 million, according to league sources familiar with the process. Portland, Toronto, and a third market believed to be in the Southeast are prepared to enter at prices that would generate $1.5 billion in fresh capital for existing franchise owners, a sum that dwarfs the league's reported $40 million annual operating loss and signals institutional conviction in the Caitlin Clark tailwind.
The expansion fee floor represents a 400 percent premium over the $100 million valuation placed on the New York Liberty when Joe Tsai acquired the team in 2019. Forbes now values the Liberty at $170 million, making it the most valuable women's team globally, but the expansion pricing suggests even that mark is stale. League revenue grew 30 percent year-over-year in 2024, reaching approximately $200 million, driven by a new media deal that pays $200 million annually starting in 2026 and attendance that averaged 9,800 fans per game, up 48 percent from 2023.
The Portland group is backed by Phil Knight's private office and includes Trail Blazers minority stakeholders who see a dual-venue opportunity with the Moda Center. Toronto's bid, led by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, positions the franchise as the league's first international market and taps the same Scotiabank Arena infrastructure that hosts the Raptors. The third ownership group has not been disclosed, but league executives have privately discussed Nashville, Louisville, and Jacksonville as finalist markets. All three bids include $50 million+ in committed arena upgrades and practice-facility construction, a requirement the league formalized after Golden State's proposed expansion fell apart over venue economics in 2022.
Expansion dilutes existing franchise revenue shares by 25 percent when the new teams begin play in 2026, but the one-time capital infusion offers a different calculation. Each of the 12 current ownership groups would receive approximately $125 million from the expansion fees, tax-free under league bylaws, a sum that exceeds the Liberty's entire enterprise value five years ago. The payout also buys political cover for the league's operating losses, which NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged publicly in February. The WNBA has lost an estimated $50 million annually over the past decade, subsidized entirely by the NBA, but the expansion capital allows the league to fund its $200 million minimum salary increase through 2027 without additional NBA support.
The vote timing aligns with the league's media-rights windfall. The new deal, announced in July, pays $2.2 billion over 11 years and includes prime-time Saturday slots on ABC and exclusive windows on Amazon Prime. Sponsors are pricing against the new reach. Nike extended its apparel partnership through 2037 at an undisclosed rate believed to exceed $50 million annually, and State Farm recently signed a $35 million three-year deal that gives it title sponsorship of the All-Star Game and playoff branding.
The expansion approval threshold requires a two-thirds vote, or eight of 12 current franchise owners. League sources expect unanimous approval, driven by the immediate payout and the competitive pressure from other women's basketball ventures. Unrivaled, the three-on-three league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, launched in January with $35 million in Series A funding and player salaries that exceed WNBA averages. The league is positioning as a complementary winter product, but team operators view it as talent-market discipline that forces WNBA salary escalation. Expansion capital provides a buffer.
The 2026 launch timeline allows the new franchises to participate in the next collective-bargaining agreement, which expires in 2027 and is expected to include revenue-sharing provisions that tie player compensation to league growth. The current CBA caps player salaries at $242,000, a figure the union has publicly called exploitative given the league's rising enterprise values. Expansion ownership groups are modeling $300,000+ average salaries by 2028, a cost structure that requires revenue growth to continue at double-digit rates.
Watch for the formal vote announcement in the next 30 days, followed by ownership introductions at the league's April Board of Governors meeting in New York. Jersey sponsorship deals for the three expansion teams are already being negotiated, with Portland targeting Nike's Jordan Brand and Toronto in talks with Scotiabank. The third market's sponsor pipeline will clarify which city won the bid.
The takeaway
Three WNBA expansion bids at **$500M+** each deliver **$1.5B** to existing owners and erase a decade of operating losses in one vote.
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