WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert actually set her sights too low in April when she said she wanted the league to double its current national media-rights fees.
The current national media contracts, through the 2025 season, average about $50 million annually. The WNBA’s new deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC, approved Tuesday, will pay the league about $2.2 billion over the next 11 years for an average of $200 million a year—and it could be even more lucrative, The Athletic reported.
Call it part of the Caitlin Clark Effect.
Engelbert made her comment in anticipation of a huge growth in popularity for the WNBA on the eve of the league draft, when the Indiana Fever made the college phenom out of the University of Iowa the No. 1 pick.
The WNBA partnered with the NBA, which negotiated the contracts as part of its own rights talks resulting in an agreement with Disney, NBC, and Amazon on approximately $75 billion over 11 years. The NBA’s board of governors approved the new terms, which are still pending.
The WNBA’s current media partners are Disney, Ion, CBS, and Amazon. The Athletic reported that in addition to the next deal, the WNBA could negotiate with new partners on two other separate rights packages to total another $60 million annually. That new total could pay the WNBA more than six times its current fees.
The league and its media partners also have agreed to revisit the rights contracts in three years to measure the value against the league’s growth, The Athletic reported.
