Owning the League: Unrivaled and Player Equity in Women's Basketball

Timeline

1. 2023Unrivaled is founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.
2. May 30, 2024The league announces a seed round, player equity and plans for the highest average salary in women's pro sports history.
3. Jan 17, 2025The inaugural eight-week season tips off in Miami with 36 players on six teams, televised on TNT.
4. Sep 8, 2025Unrivaled closes a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $340 million valuation and expands to eight teams.
5. Sep 30, 2025Collier, a WNBA players' union vice president, publicly accuses the WNBA commissioner of 'negligence' during labor talks.
6. Jan 5, 2026Unrivaled's second season opens with eight teams and a six-player development pool.
7. Jan 30, 2026Unrivaled's first road stop, in Philadelphia, sets a regular-season attendance record for professional women's basketball.
8. Aug 26, 2026A Series C round values the league at $650 million; the league says players own about 30 percent.

The ethical issues

• Whether small, vesting equity stakes give players meaningful ownership or only financial upside.
• Conflicts of interest when founders and player-owners also lead a union bargaining with a rival league.
• Transparency about equity terms, governance and finances.
• Whether pay and equity offered by a new league pressure an established league fairly.
• Trade-offs players face between equity and cash.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Interests & obligations
Unrivaled players	High pay, equity value, a winter option at home rather than overseas.
Founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart	Building a successful league while continuing to play and advocate in the WNBA.
Investors	Returns on a fast-growing league.
WNBA and its teams	Keeping players healthy, available and committed during labor negotiations.
WNBA Players Association	Negotiators whose loyalties are clear.
College players and fans	New pathways and more women's basketball to watch.

The case

For years, many WNBA players spent their off-seasons playing overseas to supplement their pay. In 2025, two of the league’s biggest stars offered an alternative at home: a winter league in Miami that would pay more than most WNBA contracts and give players a share of ownership. Unrivaled quickly attracted stars, investors and a national TV deal. Its model raises a question that most leagues have never faced: what changes, ethically, when the players are also owners?

Background

Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart founded Unrivaled in 2023.^[4] When it announced its seed funding in May 2024, the league said it would be “a league owned by players,” with athletes having “equity and a vested interest in its success,” and would offer “the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history.”^[1] “For years, women have relied heavily on off-court sponsorships for a majority of their income,” Stewart said.^[1] Collier added: “This isn’t just our league – it belongs to the players.”^[1]

Front Office Sports reported that the founders created the league “to fix a common issue for professional women’s players: the need to travel abroad during the offseason to supplement their WNBA incomes.”^[2] The league’s president is Alex Bazzell, Collier’s husband.^[2][7]

The rules and governance

Unrivaled is a private company, not a league run under a collective bargaining agreement. A University of Miami Business Law Review analysis described it as a limited liability company in which equity holders are “members.” It noted that with a small collective stake, then about 15 percent, “it is unclear whether Unrivaled athletes have a say in the governance, operations, or control of the company,” which depends on the company’s governing documents.^[3] Those documents are not public.

According to Bazzell, players’ equity vests over four years, like stakes at a startup. Players who leave before then keep what has vested, and the league has “the optionality if we want to buy them out or if we want to continue to let them grow with the value of the business.”^[7]

The first season

The inaugural season began on January 17, 2025, with 36 players on six teams, all playing in a single small arena in the Miami area. Games aired on TNT, under a deal reported to be worth about $100 million if options are exercised.^[2] Front Office Sports reported that the total salary pool was more than $8 million, for an average above $220,000. By comparison, about 20 of the WNBA’s 144 players had a base salary above $200,000 the previous season.^[2] The league also signed college stars Paige Bueckers and Flau’jae Johnson to name, image and likeness deals that included equity stakes and future roster spots.^[2]

The Miami Business Law Review reported that the league raised $35 million and came close to breaking even in its first year.^[3] It also flagged a possible issue: as Unrivaled grows, it could compete with the WNBA for TV deals, sponsors and players. That could create conflicts for players who hold equity in Unrivaled while playing in the WNBA.^[3]

Growth and conflict

In September 2025, Unrivaled closed a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $340 million valuation.^[4] The league said players “continue to benefit directly from the league’s growth.”^[4] Sportico reported that it had expanded to eight teams.^[5]

That same month, the WNBA and its players’ union were negotiating a new collective agreement. On September 30, Collier, a vice president of the WNBA Players Association, used her season-ending press conference to say the WNBA had “the worst leadership in the world.” She accused commissioner Cathy Engelbert of “negligence” over officiating and player pay.^[6] Collier said Engelbert had told her in a February meeting, held at Unrivaled, that players “should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal.”^[6] Engelbert said she was “disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership.”^[5][6]

Sportico observed that Collier’s roles as union vice president and Unrivaled co-founder “put her in a unique position, as both a union negotiator and potential challenger to the W.” It noted that Unrivaled’s expansion offered more slots to WNBA players who might spend the off-season in a lockout.^[5] By May 2026, the WNBA had signed a new collective agreement that CBC Sports said raised average salaries to as much as $585,000.^[8]

Season two

The second season opened in Miami on January 5, 2026. Bazzell said the league had added two teams, Breeze BC and Hive BC, a year earlier than planned because it “outperformed its financial projections.” Expansion created 12 more roster spots.^[10] In the first season, injuries and illness had forced the league to cancel one game and fill rosters with short-term relief signings. For season two it created a development pool of six players, who trained in Miami, could join any team, and were paid a full salary however many games they played.^[10] CBS Sports reported that every player would earn at least six figures. Bazzell said salaries were rising because “as the business continues to drive more revenue, the revenue is going to get funneled back into the players.” The 1-on-1 tournament again carried a $350,000 prize pool, with $200,000 to the winner.^[10]

The player pool also changed. CBS Sports reported that several first-season stars, including Angel Reese, Sabrina Ionescu and Jewell Loyd, chose not to return. Collier, the co-founder, was ruled out of the season after doctors found she needed surgery on both ankles.^[10] The league also played its first games away from Miami, a four-game stop at the 76ers’ arena in Philadelphia on January 30.^[10] The league later said that night set records for the best-attended regular-season professional women’s basketball game and for any event at the arena, and that a second road stop, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, also sold out.^[9]

Aftermath

In August 2026, Unrivaled announced a Series C round of more than $100 million, valuing it at $650 million. It said the players’ share was worth nearly $200 million, about 30 percent of the company, and that the player equity pool had grown 550 percent since launch.^[7] Bazzell said all 36 first-season players received equity and that “at least 95%” of current players have some. Those who don’t, he said, chose more cash instead.^[7] Sabrina Ionescu, who played only the first season, was an example of a player whose stake stopped vesting when she left.^[7] Front Office Sports reported that TV ratings dipped in the second season, though two tour stops at NBA arenas sold out.^[7] A rival winter league, Project B, was preparing to launch.^[7]

The league’s own announcement of the round, dated August 26, 2026, said it was led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, which is backed by UC Investments. Earlier backers, including Bessemer Venture Partners, reinvested. It called players “the league’s largest shareholder group” and said the player pool’s value had risen “more than 550%.” The release named Bazzell as “CEO & Co-Founder.” Stewart called Unrivaled “a league where the best players in the world have a real stake in the value they create.”^[9] The release did not disclose revenue, profit, how much of the company each player holds, or what governance rights player equity carries.^[9] It said the third season would begin in January 2027 on TNT Sports.^[9]

The core dilemma

Equity can align players’ interests with the league’s success and give them wealth that grows over time. But a minority stake with vesting, buyout options and undisclosed governance rights may give players far less control than “a league owned by players” suggests. And when player-owners also lead a union negotiating with a rival league, their loyalties can pull in different directions. The dilemma is whether player equity makes a league more just, or whether it creates new obligations around transparency, governance and conflicts that the league must meet.

Competing values

• Ownership vs. control: equity provides financial upside, but governance power depends on terms players may not fully control.
• Cash vs. equity: guaranteed pay is certain, while equity may be worth more or nothing.
• Advocacy vs. self-interest: founders’ criticism of a rival league may be sincere advocacy, but it can also benefit their business.
• Competition vs. cooperation: a new league raises pay across the sport but can strain players’ relationships with their main employer.
• Transparency vs. privacy: private companies need not disclose finances, but player-owners and the public may need that information.

Strongest arguments

That player equity changes league ethics for the better: Players share directly in the value they create; the league says their stake is worth nearly $200 million.^[7] Salaries far exceeded most WNBA base pay, and players can stay home in the winter.^[2] Every player was offered equity, and some chose cash, which suggests real choice.^[7] The model put pressure on established leagues to raise pay, and the WNBA later agreed to much higher salaries.^[3][8]

That it changes less than it claims, and creates new problems: Players are minority owners, and the extent of their governance rights is unclear.^[3] The league can buy out unvested holders.^[7] Founders and their family hold leadership roles while also playing and, in Collier’s case, serving as a union officer negotiating with the WNBA.^[2][5][7] Without public financial and governance information, players and fans cannot judge whether the equity is fairly valued or managed.^[3]

Applying the frameworks

Justice & fairness (Rawls)

Behind a veil of ignorance, not knowing whether you would be a founder, a star, a role player, an investor or a WNBA player who never joins Unrivaled, what league structure would you choose? You might favor broad equity and high salaries, since they share wealth with the people who generate it. But you would also want clear, equal rules for vesting and buyouts, and protections so that minority player-owners are not disadvantaged compared with founders and investors.

Rights-based

Ownership usually brings rights: information, a vote on major decisions and protection from unfair dilution. A rights-based approach asks whether Unrivaled’s player-owners actually hold those rights. Players also have a right to bargain collectively in the WNBA through a union whose negotiators owe them loyalty. That right is weakened if negotiators have undisclosed or unmanaged conflicts.

Utilitarian

A utilitarian looks at overall effects. Unrivaled added well-paid jobs, more women’s basketball for fans and a source of pressure on the WNBA to raise pay.^[2][8] Risks include heavier playing loads for athletes in both leagues, strain in WNBA labor talks and losses for player-owners if the league’s value falls. On current evidence, the benefits appear large, but they depend on the league’s continued growth.

Walk it through: the Simple Decision Model

1. Spot the issue: A league offers players equity and high pay, while its founders also lead a union negotiating with a rival league.
2. Gather facts: Equity terms, governance documents, vesting and buyout rules, finances, and the founders’ roles in the WNBA union.
3. Test options: Publish equity and governance terms; give player-owners a board seat or information rights; require founders to disclose conflicts or step back from certain union decisions.
4. Check codes and law: LLC law on members’ rights, union rules on officers’ duties, and agreements between the leagues.
5. Decide and document: Put conflict-of-interest policies in writing for founders and executives.
6. Communicate and follow up: Report regularly to player-owners on finances and equity value, and review governance as the league grows.

What’s settled and what’s contested

• Settled: Unrivaled launched in January 2025 with an average salary above $220,000 and equity for players; it was valued at $340 million in September 2025 and $650 million in August 2026; the league says players own about 30 percent; Collier publicly criticized WNBA leadership while serving as a union vice president.^[2][4][6][7]
• Contested: how much governance power player equity carries; whether Collier’s dual roles created a conflict of interest; whether the league’s growth is sustainable; how much Unrivaled contributed to the WNBA’s later pay increases.

Why this case matters

Athlete equity is spreading across new leagues, from women’s sports to startups in other sports. Unrivaled is the most prominent test of whether ownership changes how leagues treat players. Its experience shows that equity can share wealth, but that real ownership also requires transparency, clear rights and careful handling of conflicts.

See also: Building a League to Last: The PWHL’s Launch and Rapid Expansion.

Key terms

Conflict of interest

A situation where a person’s private interest could improperly influence a decision they make in an official role.

Stakeholders

Everyone with something at stake in a decision: athletes, coaches, parents, officials, fans, employees, sponsors, media, communities and regulators, including the less visible ones.

Agency

An athlete’s ability to make decisions and act independently about their body, career and voice.

Commercialization

The process of turning sport into a product and a business enterprise, with profit pressures that can compete with principle.

Distributive justice

Fairness in how scarce opportunities, resources, benefits and burdens are shared.

Principal–agent problem

When those acting on others’ behalf (agents such as executives, officials or agents) have interests that diverge from the people they serve.

Definitions from the Ethics Cases glossary.

Discussion questions

1. Unrivaled describes itself as 'a league owned by players.' With players holding about 30 percent and the league able to buy out unvested holders, is that description accurate?
2. Collier co-founded Unrivaled and served as a WNBA union vice president during labor talks. Was that a conflict of interest? How should it have been managed?
3. Some players chose more cash instead of equity. What should a player consider when choosing between the two?
4. Does a player-equity model make a league more ethical, or just differently structured?
5. How should established leagues respond when a new league offers players ownership?

Sources

1. Groundbreaking New Professional Women's Basketball League 'Unrivaled' to Offer Highest Average Salary in Professional Women's Sports League History — Unrivaled
2. Unrivaled's Bold Business Plan for Women's Basketball Debuts in Miami — Front Office Sports
3. Unrivaled Basketball's Slam-Dunk of an Inaugural Season and What it May Mean for Unrivaled Players as Equity Partners — University of Miami Business Law Review
4. Unrivaled Closes Oversubscribed Series B Investment Round Headlined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Increasing League Valuation to $340 Million — Unrivaled
5. Napheesa Collier Rips WNBA Commish From Union, Unrivaled Perch — Sportico
6. Napheesa Collier speaks out on WNBA accountability: 'Right now, we have the worst leadership in the world' — CNN
7. Unrivaled Valued at $650M After Latest Funding Round, Players Own 30% — Front Office Sports
8. PWHL players' salary release shows Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark highest earner — CBC Sports
9. Unrivaled Oversubscribes Series C Fundraise Led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, Exceeding $100 Million Target at New League Valuation of $650 Million — Unrivaled
10. Where to watch Unrivaled: TV channel, live stream as 3-on-3 league tips off (Jan. 5, 2026) — CBS Sports