The WNBA Board of Governors is expected to vote on expansion by late spring, with three ownership groups bidding between $500 million and $1 billion+ per franchise. Portland, Toronto, and the Bay Area are understood to be the finalists. The vote would represent the largest entry fee in women's professional sports history and a 10x to 20x multiple on the league's previous expansion round in 2008, when Atlanta paid roughly $50 million.
The timing follows Forbes publishing its first-ever WNBA team valuations this week. The New York Liberty—owned by Joe Tsai's family office since 2019—topped the list at $180 million, a figure already outdated by the current bidding. Liberty season-ticket renewals are running 92%, and the team sold out 18 of 20 home games last season. Tsai acquired the team for roughly $12 million five years ago. The gap between that purchase price and today's Forbes number is a rounding error compared to what Portland and Toronto groups are offering.
Expansion pricing this high changes the talent math. The league's current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2027. Player max salaries are capped at $241,984 for 2024, while the NBA minimum is $1.1 million. Owners paying nine-figure entry fees will push for a harder revenue share with players, which will tighten sponsorship and media negotiations. Nike's WNBA apparel deal, signed in 2018, comes up for renewal in 2025. The league's national broadcast package with ESPN and CBS runs through 2025 as well. Both will be priced against a different valuation floor.
The Portland group is led by RAJ Sports, the family office behind the Trail Blazers, with participation from former Nike executive Larry Miller. Toronto's bid includes Kilmer Sports, owners of MLSE's second-tier assets, and at least two Canadian pension funds. The Bay Area bid is quieter—two tech principals and a former Warriors minority partner who left the cap table in 2022. None of the three groups have spoken publicly, but all three have conducted venue feasibility studies in the past six months. Portland's Moda Center lease allows 20+ additional event dates. Toronto's Scotiabank Arena has scheduling flexibility post-Raptors. San Francisco's Chase Center, owned by the Warriors, is the complication—Joe Lacob has not committed to a tenancy deal, and the bid group has toured Oakland Arena as a fallback.
The vote requires a simple majority of the league's 12 current governors. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said publicly the league will expand to 16 teams by 2028. Three teams this cycle leaves one more slot, which league sources expect to go to either Philadelphia or Houston in a second vote by early 2026. Philadelphia's bid is further along—Elevate Sports Ventures has a term sheet with the Sixers for a Wells Fargo Center tenancy. Houston has venue access but no formal ownership group yet.
What to watch: The vote is tentatively scheduled for the Board of Governors meeting in mid-May, though it could slip to June if Toronto's pension-fund approvals delay. Winning bidders would begin operations in 2026, meaning front-office hires start this summer. Expansion draft mechanics are not yet public, but the CBA allows each existing team to protect six players. Coaching markets are already pricing in new jobs—three current G League head coaches have agent chatter tied to expansion benches.
The Forbes Liberty valuation and the $500M Portland floor are not reconcilable without assuming the next media deal doubles. That media deal is 18 months away from negotiation. Someone is pricing in a number that does not exist yet.
The takeaway
WNBA expansion bids at **$500M–$1B+** force media and sponsorship deals to reprice before they renew in 2025.
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