New Leagues and New Teams

A Look into the New Women's Basketball League: Unrivaled

This is the time of year when many stars from the WNBA go overseas to play basketball. Unlike the men’s league, women’s professional leagues tend to be much shorter, and for the WNBA, the season only lasts about 4 months compared to the 6 months in the NBA. With the league being much shorter, fans don’t get to see much of their favorite players play, and players don’t play nearly as much basketball, causing many WNBA players to go straight overseas to play until the season starts back up again. This happened so much that it became the norm for many players, and sacrificing time with family and their homes in America, for players just had to be accepted if they wanted to stay competitive. Well, two former UCONN teammates and WNBA stars; Brianna Stewart and Napheesa Collier wanted to create a competitive league here in the States that would change that narrative. The two ladies came together and created Unrivaled a 3v3 basketball league where professional women athletes could play in a competitive league in America during the WNBA off-season instead of overseas. The league consists of 6 teams and 36 players, with 9 weeks of games, including playoffs. A couple of unique features in this league is that there will be a 1V1 tournament held to determine who the best player in the world is adding yet another competitive attribute to the league. Also, not only is this league going to be one of the highest-paying women’s professional leagues in the United States, but all 36 initial players will also receive equity ownership in the league. This is not only a first of its kind but Stewart and Collier wanted to make sure that this league would not only give options to players but also include them in the future growth of the league and the sport. The league will start this month on Jan,17th in sunny Miami and will be streamed on TNT.

NWSL Newest team is coming to Denver

Denver is the new city that the NWSL is expanding to. The bid was reported to be $110 million, which is almost double for when Bay FC placed the bid. This makes it one of the highest fee paid NWSL team. It is awesome to see the NWSL grow in both value and in teams. Especially seeing the success and support for Bay FC and the Utah Royals who were added last year (Utah Royals being a returning franchise). Although the team will not be ready till 2026, just the fact that it is in motion gives more guaranteed opportunities to future stars. So come 2026, it will be Denver and Boston as the newest teams to be added into the NWSL. During the process there were also other cities that were competing with Denver including Cincinnati and Cleveland but the market was best in Denver. Now with these new teams, it will create more opportunities for fans to watch, and players to decide where they want to play. The 2025 NWSL season is expected to start around March.