The WNBA’s reported 11-year, $2.2 billion media-rights deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon are just the latest win for women’s sports, which have been riding a wave of historic momentum in recent years.

With attendance and viewership rising across many leagues, broadcasters have been paying up big time for women’s sports. When the WNBA’s new deals begin in 2026, media companies will be paying at least $325 million annually for three of the top women’s sports properties. 

• WNBA: $200 million
• Women’s March Madness: $65 million (ESPN)
• NWSL: $60 million (ESPN, Amazon, CBS, Scripps Sports)

Other recent, but smaller, media-rights deals for women’s sports competitions include Fox picking up the UEFA Women’s Euros and Peacock acquiring the soon-to-launch USL Super League. The PWHL is looking for a marquee U.S. deal after its debut season.

What’s Next for the WNBA?

News of the WNBA media-rights deals comes as the league heads into All-Star weekend, in Phoenix, before going on a nearly monthlong break while its top players compete in the Paris Olympics. Saturday’s All-Star Game format will see Team USA members face off against other league all-stars.

The WNBA may not be done negotiating its rights deals, either. The league anticipates selling two other packages that could bring in another $60 million annually, according to The Athletic. That would give current media partners CBS Sports and Scripps Sports a chance to retain their respective WNBA relationships. 

With Fever rookie Caitlin Clark helping fuel ratings records on every channel she plays on, sticking with the WNBA would seem like a no-brainer for rights holders.

“Scripps Sports is proud of our involvement, investment, and commitment to the WNBA and its growth,” the company’s president, Brian Lawlor, tells Front Office Sports. “We believe we are an important part of the visibility of the league and hope to be able to continue serving WNBA audiences with appointment TV on Friday nights on Ion for many years to come.” CBS Sports declined to comment when asked by FOS.

A Hot Commodity

Leagues like the WNBA are seeing media-rights increases in part because sponsors are more excited than they used to be about being associated with women’s sports.

Ad measurement company EDO estimates that WNBA ad revenue has nearly doubled from $6.6 million in 2022 to $12.4 million in ’24, with fans 44% more likely to engage with league commercials so far this season compared to the same period last year. “The WNBA’s expanded media footprint marks a seismic shift in recognizing the immense value of women’s sports,” Laura Grover, a senior vice president at EDO, tells FOS.

“We know that live sports has always been one of the most premium packages that are demanded from our advertisers,” says Kenneth Suh, the chief strategy officer for advertising technology company Nexxen. “And we now know that women’s sports inventories are also starting to demand high interest from buyers, as well, and previously that just wasn’t the case.”

Still Not Enough?

Despite the historic nature of the WNBA deals, the leader of the league’s players’ association is still not satisfied with how the product is being valued in comparison to the NBA, which is on the cusp of announcing deals worth $76 billion over the same 11-year period. The reported WNBA deals would be worth less than 3% of the NBA’s.

“The NBA controls the destiny of the WNBA,” WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson said in a statement, referencing the NBA’s role in negotiating the WNBA deals. “We look forward to learning how the NBA arrived at a $200 million [annual] valuation—if initial reports are accurate or even close. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA can deny that in the last few years, we have seen unprecedented growth across all metrics, the players continue to demonstrate their commitment to building the brand, and that the fans keep showing up. There is no excuse to undervalue the WNBA again.”

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Braves are now on the clock for MLB’s next All-Star Game with the 2024 edition at Globe Life Field complete. But the upcoming Midsummer Classic carries a sense of expanding ambition from the host club and the weight of broader politics that forced a prior removal of the event from Atlanta.

A group of about 50 people from Georgia—a mix of Braves employees, elected officials, and public safety personnel—traveled to Texas to shadow their counterparts as MLB and the Rangers executed this year’s All-Star Game. 

While accounting for best practices, MLB’s All-Star Game is still designed to reflect its host market as much as possible. To that end, Braves executives said they intend to lean heavily into their Southern culture, as well as Atlanta’s extensive experience as a big-event town, having hosted spectacles such as the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff, and March Madness in recent years.

“We’re not intimidated by what needs to happen. Atlanta is a town that has a lot of history with big events like this, and it does them very well,” Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller tells Front Office Sports. “The focus for us is to bring this event to life in our market and make it truly embody Atlanta.”

Among other elements in development for the 2025 All-Star Game:

• The club sees the Georgia voting rights dispute as a nonissue. MLB removed the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the state’s controversial voting rights law and potential boycotts from players in response. Since then, some parts of the state law have been adjusted and broader concerns about voter suppression have not necessarily materialized, while newer rules have kept the issue a prevalent one in Georgia. In late ’23, MLB awarded next year’s All-Star Game to Atlanta as commissioner Rob Manfred lauded Truist Park and adjacent Battery as “gems in terms of facilities.” Georgia remains a critical swing state in this fall’s U.S. presidential election. But Schiller says the club is not dwelling on the subject. “It’s full speed ahead for us,” he says. 
• Changes are happening at Truist Park, with more to come. The ballpark is only seven years old, and, with The Battery, remains an industry model for sports-centered, mixed-use development. But the Braves on Wednesday introduced an expanded version of their popular Chop House seating at the ballpark, as well as a new premium area, the Bullpen, featuring breathable mesh seats and television monitors. The changes, arriving for the start of the 2025 season, are just the beginning of a much larger series of upgrades planned at the ballpark. “We can’t stand still,” Schiller says. “It’s always about what else do we have to offer, what else can we be doing?”
• Downtown Atlanta will be an important factor. This year, the All-Star Game events were heavily concentrated in Arlington while the draft was in Fort Worth, leaving Dallas with a much smaller presence. The Braves, conversely, plan to incorporate downtown Atlanta heavily into All-Star week and involve the broader region as much as possible. 
• The logo for the 2025 All-Star Game will be unveiled Monday. Marking the formal handoff of the event from one host city to the next, the unveiling will include a parade through the Battery of Braves alumni. 
• Braves legends will additionally be a fixture throughout next year’s events. The club’s dynasty of the 1990s and early 2000s produced a bevy of All-Stars and Hall of Famers, many of whom will be central figures in next year’s run of events. 

“We, of course, have had a lot of All-Stars. But so many of them also still live right in the [Atlanta] area, which is great,” Schiller says.