Women’s basketball is booming in America. Public interest is great. And a number of sports icons are active in the WNBA as investors.
Pop star potential: Aliyah Boston (left) in action for INdiana Fever Photo: Steve Marcus/ap
The first half of July has always been a good time of year for American women’s basketball to showcase itself to the sports public. The NBA and the Stanley Cup are over and nobody thinks about football for a long time.
The WNBA has made excellent use of this summer slump so far. The return of Britney Griner from her incarceration in Russia is drawing fans en masse to the screens. The rivalry between the two super teams New York and Las Vegas has been electrifying supporters long before the playoffs. And in Aliyah Boston, the league has a charismatic rookie who has also drawn her fanatical following from her college years to the WNBA.
The trend of the past three years is continuing in the current season. Women’s basketball is booming in the US, unmatched by any other professional sports league. Ratings have increased by 67 percent compared to the previous year, and ticket sales by 27 percent. Sponsorship revenue grew at a double-digit rate, and merchandise sales at the NBA Store in New York increased 78 percent.
The news last week that three-time NBA champion and Finals MVP Dwayne Wade has joined the Chicago Sky for an undisclosed amount matched this boom mood. “We are just at the beginning of the WNBA. There’s going to be tremendous growth,” Wade said.
Safe investment
He’s not the first and not the only ex-professional to jump on the bandwagon of America’s most successful women’s professional league. In March, former professional football player Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, acquired shares in the Las Vegas Aces. Before him, baseball star Alex Rodriguez had bought shares in the Minnesota Lynx. And back in 2014, basketball icon Magic Johnson bought LA Sparks as part of an investor group.
It’s easy to see why it’s attractive for former sports greats to add WNBA shares to their investment portfolios. Basically nothing can go wrong.
The upward trend in women’s basketball will certainly continue for a while. Just last year, the league overhauled its business model and expanded its digital marketing with the help of a $75 million cash injection from an investor group centered around Nike. The WNBA is now reaching an important target group: teenage girls and young women who no longer necessarily own cable television but like to watch their stars like Aliyah Boston on their phones or tablets.
For investors, the risk is comparatively low. The barrier to entry into the WNBA is still low. The value of the Chicago Sky, for example, is estimated at around 85 million dollars. For a single-digit million amount you get significant shares. The NBA team that Dwayne Wade also invests in, the Utah Jazz, is valued at about $2.25 billion for comparison.
In return for their small and low-risk investment, the ex-stars get an enormous image boost. Getting involved in women’s sports is trendy. In addition, the WNBA has a high coolness factor. Unlike, say, softball players, female athletes like Boston have pop star potential. And old white men like Brady can hope some of that rubs off on them.
Of course, when it comes to coolness, Wade doesn’t need help like Brady does. But the contact with young people is also good for him. At the same time, he is more likely than Brady to believe that it is about promoting women’s basketball. Wade has appeared at WNBA games more than once with former teammate LeBron James. Now, he said of his move to put money into the league, he wants to give substance to his moral support.
2023-07-19 15:34:11
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