The WNBA collected $50 million from Joe Lacob and Peter Guber for the Golden State Valkyries, the league's thirteenth franchise. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert now expects to add three more teams by 2028, with Portland, Philadelphia, and Toronto in active bidding. At $75-100 million per slot, the league could bank another $225-300 million before the decade turns. The Valkyries tip off in May.
The NBA is pricing expansion at a different altitude. League sources expect Las Vegas and Seattle bids will clear $4 billion per franchise, nearly triple the $1.5 billion Phoenix paid for the Suns in 2022. Commissioner Adam Silver has said expansion talks will begin "in earnest" once the new media deal closes in 2025. At $8 billion total, existing owners would split a one-time distribution of roughly $266 million per team, tax-free under current league rules. The Seattle bid is led by Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Oak View Group's Tim Leiweke. Las Vegas has the backing of MGM, Wynn, and the Raiders' Mark Davis, who wants an arena tenant.
MLB added Nashville and Las Vegas in exploratory talks last year, targeting $2.5 billion per team. The Nashville Stars ownership group includes Dave Stewart and has already secured land near Nissan Stadium. Las Vegas remains complicated: the Athletics are relocating there from Oakland, but Commissioner Rob Manfred has left the door open for a second franchise if a downtown arena plan materializes. The league has not expanded since 1998, when Tampa Bay and Arizona paid $130 million each.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed Atlanta is the frontrunner for the league's thirty-third team, priced at $1.2 billion. The bid is led by Anson Carter and Vernon Krause, with The Battery Atlanta site anchoring the arena plan. Houston and Kansas City remain in conversation. The league added Seattle in 2021 at $650 million and Las Vegas in 2017 at $500 million. Atlanta's fee reflects arena economics: the expansion team would control concert revenue and retain naming rights, a structure Seattle pioneered. Krause's group has already lined up Truist and Delta as anchor sponsors.
NWSL is the outlier on price and pace. Boston paid $53 million in 2023; BOS Nation FC debuts this spring. The league added Bay FC for $53 million and is considering Cincinnati and Cleveland at similar numbers. Commissioner Jessica Berman has capped the league at sixteen teams by 2026, then pause. The revenue model is sponsor-heavy: Bay FC signed $30 million in partnerships before playing a match, led by Google and Salesforce.
The math works for sellers. Existing owners split expansion fees as distributions, not league revenue, which means no revenue-sharing with players and no luxury-tax implications. The WNBA's $50 million fee divides across twelve teams; each owner nets roughly $4.2 million. For the NBA, $8 billion split thirty ways is $266 million per team, more than most franchises' annual operating income. The new teams, meanwhile, pay full freight into revenue-sharing from day one and receive no basketball-related income distributions for their first three years in most leagues.
The risk is dilution. Adding two NBA teams means splitting national media revenue thirty-two ways instead of thirty, and playoff shares across more rosters. The current media deal pays teams roughly $370 million annually from ESPN and Turner; two more teams would reduce that by 6% unless the next contract grows proportionally. Silver has argued that Las Vegas and Seattle add media markets worth the trade. The WNBA faces a similar calculation: its new $200 million annual media deal assumes fourteen teams by 2026. Adding two more by 2028 without renegotiating the contract would compress per-team payouts.
The Valkyries paid $50 million for a team that will play in Chase Center, which Golden State already owns, with sponsorship inventory Lacob controls. The franchise fee is pure profit. The operating model is murkier: WNBA teams lose money, and even Chase Center's 18,064 seats will be curtained to 12,000 for Valkyries games. If Golden State wins a title in year one, the franchise valuation could approach $100 million, per recent Dream and Aces comps. That would double Lacob's money on paper, but only if someone wants to buy.
NBA expansion votes require twenty-three of thirty owners. The league's board of governors will review Seattle and Las Vegas bids in the spring, with a formal vote expected by the 2025 draft. WNBA expansion requires only board approval; the league expects to announce its fourteenth team by June. NHL's Atlanta bid is in its second review phase, with a vote possible before the 2025-26 season. MLB has set no timeline. NWSL will not expand past sixteen teams until 2027 at the earliest, per Berman's remarks at the league's January owners meeting.
The Valkyries open at home against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 16.
The takeaway
Five leagues are chasing **$5B+** in expansion fees by 2028, with NBA's **$8B** haul split tax-free across thirty owners—if the media math holds.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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