The New York Liberty are worth $165 million, according to Forbes' latest WNBA franchise valuations, making them the most valuable team in women's professional basketball and the first women's sports franchise to crack nine figures. The Las Vegas Aces rank second at $140 million. The league average sits at $96 million, up 34% from the previous year.
The rankings landed three weeks after commissioner Cathy Engelbert confirmed the league will expand to 15 teams by 2028, adding franchises in Portland, Toronto, and San Francisco at $50 million entry fees. The Golden State Valkyries begin play in 2025. Portland and Toronto launch in 2026. San Francisco follows in 2028. Each new ownership group pays the fee in tranches over two years, with $25 million due at approval and the balance before opening night.
The Liberty valuation reflects what family offices already know: the franchise operates in the country's largest media market, plays in a 17,732-seat arena with luxury suites priced at six figures annually, and won the 2024 championship under owner Joe Tsai, who also controls the Brooklyn Nets. Tsai acquired the team in 2019 for a reported $10 million to $15 million. The math works for allocators circling the expansion window. A $165 million implied cap means Portland and Toronto buyers are entering at a 70% discount to the current league leader, with media-rights negotiations scheduled for 2025 and Nike's apparel deal expiring in 2027.
The expansion timeline creates pressure on existing franchises to close infrastructure gaps before new teams dilute attention. Six teams still share arenas with NBA clubs under unfavorable lease terms. Three teams play in venues seating fewer than 10,000. The Liberty's valuation premium stems partly from controlling their building calendar and capturing full gate and concession revenue. Las Vegas enjoys similar terms at Michelob Ultra Arena. The gap between the top two franchises and the rest of the league—$69 million separates third-place Golden State at $95 million—reflects the spread between teams that own their economics and teams that rent.
Sponsor interest follows the same gradient. Liberty jersey patches and courtside inventory now command rates comparable to mid-tier NBA markets. A team executive at a bottom-five franchise said his sponsorship deck still prices against NWSL clubs, not NBA ones. The delta matters for expansion groups in Portland and Toronto, both cities with NBA precedent and existing venue infrastructure. Toronto's group includes Larry Tanenbaum, who chairs Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which operates Scotiabank Arena and the Raptors. Portland's buyer is RAJ Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, which owns the NFL's Carolina Panthers facility lease. Both groups enter with arena access already secured.
The league's nine-figure aggregate losses, reported by Front Office Sports at roughly $40 million annually, do not trouble the institutional money circling the sport. One family-office allocator sizing a franchise stake noted that NBA teams lost money for decades before media rights turned negative cash flow into private-equity bait. The comp that matters is the NWSL, where expansion fees jumped from $2 million in 2019 to $53 million in 2024 after Apple signed a streaming deal. WNBA media rights expire after the 2025 season. Engelbert has said she expects the next package to exceed $200 million annually, up from the current $60 million.
Watch for San Francisco's ownership group announcement, expected before the 2025 season opener in May. The league will also finalize Portland and Toronto branding by June, with jersey reveals tied to the Nike contract renewal window in 2027. Expansion draft details—how many players each new team can select from existing rosters—will be settled by December 2025, per league bylaws.
The Liberty's $165 million valuation is the number the other 14 franchises are now working backward from.
The takeaway
Liberty's $165M valuation sets the comp for expansion buyers entering at $50M, with media rights up for renewal in 2025.
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