CNBC's Official WNBA Team Valuations 2026: The league has its first $1 billion team
The value of WNBA teams is escalating rapidly, as evidenced by the sharp increase in expansion fees and team purchases. CNBC calculates that the WNBA’s current 15 teams are worth an average of $460 million, 84% more than the league’s most recent expansion fee of $250 million, with average revenue for the 13 teams that participated in the 2025 season at $31 million. The Golden State Valkyries, which joined the league in 2025, lead the pack at a valuation of $1 billion. It’s the first time a women’s team in any sport has been valued at $1 billion. The landmark valuation for the Valkyries may not be an outlier for long. “Well-run WNBA teams will be worth $1 billion within five years,” a person looking to invest in a franchise said in mid-April. The person asked not to be named because the matter is private. The league’s latest expansion teams — Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — which were announced last June and will start play from 2028 to 2030, have agreed to pay expansion fees of $250 million. In contrast, Valkyries owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid the league a fee of $50 million in 2023. And the Portland Fire paid $75 million to join this season, according to people with firsthand knowledge of the agreements who asked not to be named because the matter is private. CNBC puts the value of the Portland Fire at $380 million. Based on where the team stands with season ticket sales and sponsorships, revenue for the team could approach $50 million this season, according to a person familiar with the team’s operations who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak about the matter publicly. In March, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which purchased the Connecticut Sun for $10 million in 2003, announced it would be selling the team to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for $300 million , pending league approval. Fertitta plans to move the team to the Toyota Center, home of the NBA’s Rockets, where the Sun will become the Houston Comets starting in the 2027 season, according to a person familiar with the proposed deal who asked not to be named because the matter is private. CNBC values the Sun at $400 million largely because of this impending move. The team’s economics should improve significantly in Houston because the Toyota Center’s seating capacity is nearly double that of the Mohegan Sun Arena. Fertitta also operates the Toyota Center. Underpinning the rise in WNBA team valuations is a surge in the value of the league’s media rights. Since July 2024, the WNBA has signed new media rights deals with Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal, CNBC parent Versant , Paramount Skydance and E.W. Scripps that begin this season. Combined, these multiyear deals — some of which cover 11 years — are worth an annual average of $281 million, 6½ times the annual average of the league’s previous media rights deals, according to a person familiar with the deals. The person asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The WNBA has also been attracting more sponsors and fans. The number of league sponsors increased to around 30 for the start of the 2026 season, about 40% more than last season, the person said. The person noted that the league also enjoyed its highest average attendanceper game in history in 2025: 11,148. This despite Caitlin Clark, arguably the league’s biggest star, missing more than half of the Indiana Fever’s games due to injuries. And in 2025, the WNBA had its highest average television ratings since 1998, with regular-season games averaging 969,000 viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. Another plus for valuations is that the league’s new collective bargaining agreement between owners and players, ratified March 24, should provide labor peace for several years. WNBA teams that share an owner and arena with an NBA team are typically the most valuable because of scale and the ability to cross-sell tickets, premium seating, hospitality and sponsorships. A prime example is the Valkyries, whose owners, Lacob and Guber, also own the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the Chase Center, the home for both teams. Last season, the Valkyries’ first in the league, the team led the WNBA with $78 million in revenue, according to a person familiar with team finances who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The Valkyries’ average home attendance last season was a league-leading 18,064, and this season they became the first WNBA team to sell 12,000 season tickets, the person said. The surge in WNBA team values has not been confined to teams that play in big arenas. The Las Vegas Aces play in the 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena, yet CNBC pegs the value of the team, which won WNBA titles in 2022, 2023 and 2025 , at $500 million, fourth on our list. Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis paid $2 million for the Las Vegas Aces in 2021, according to a person familiar with the terms of the deal who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The defending champs sold out all 8,700 season-ticket memberships for the 2026 season with a 92% renewal rate from the previous season, becoming the first team in league history to sell out season ticket allotments for three consecutive years, the person said. The waiting list for Aces season tickets: 6,000. The Atlanta Dream’s revenue is projected to double in 2026 from$17 million last season, as local sponsorship revenue is expected to increase 50% this season and hit eight figures, according to two people familiar with the team’s finances who asked not to be named because the matter is private. This season, the people said, the team is expanding its seating capacity at Gateway Center Arena from 3,500 to 4,000 and will play at least five games at State Farm Arena, home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, which seats about 17,000. And last month’s trade for two-time All-Star Angel Reese led to an immediate jump in jersey sales. According to multiple people with firsthand knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named because the matter is private,a group led by Larry Gottesdiener paid $5 million for the Dream in 2021. CNBC pegs the team’s value at $330 million. Methodology To calculate WNBA team values CNBC spoke with dozens of people with detailed information about league and team finances, including WNBA and NBA executives, and sports bankers who have represented investors in WNBA teams. Our WNBA team values are current enterprise values — equity plus net debt — and are control stake valuations. Revenue figures in the table are for the 2025 season. — CNBC’s Hector Fadraga contributed to this report.
