So, I got curious the other day about the WNBA’s money situation for 2023. You hear a lot about growth, new fans, big names coming in, all that stuff. Naturally, I thought, “Okay, let’s see what the actual revenue looked like last year.” Seemed like a straightforward thing to check, right?
First thing I did was just punch “WNBA revenue 2023” into the usual search engines. You know how it is. Expected to see some solid numbers pop up, maybe from a financial report or a reliable sports business site.
Well, that wasn’t quite how it went down. What I got back was a whole lot of articles, yeah, but they were mostly talking about growth. Stuff like:
- Record viewership!
- Attendance way up!
- Big new sponsorship deals!
- Merchandise sales booming!
All positive signs, no doubt about it. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert often gets quoted talking about hitting revenue targets or seeing massive percentage increases. But the actual total dollar amount? That was proving tricky to pin down.
Digging a Bit Deeper
Okay, so the first quick search didn’t cut it. My next step was to try different search terms. Maybe “WNBA financial report 2023” or “WNBA earnings 2023”. I even tried looking specifically for reports from business news outlets that usually cover this kind of thing – places like Forbes, Bloomberg, Sportico.
Found some estimates, definitely. Some articles threw out numbers, maybe around $200 million, often citing league sources or projections based on the known deals and growth metrics. But it always felt a bit… vague. Not like when you look up, say, the NBA’s revenue, where you usually get a much clearer figure reported more consistently.
I even poked around the official WNBA site and the NBA site (since the NBA has a big stake). Lots of press releases celebrating the successes of the 2023 season, the historic finals viewership, the new collective bargaining agreement’s impact, but again, not that one simple number: total league revenue for the fiscal year 2023.
Hitting a Wall (Sort Of)
After spending a decent chunk of time on this, going through articles, trying different search approaches, I kind of came to a realization. The WNBA, maybe because it’s structured differently or just chooses not to, doesn’t seem to publicly broadcast its specific total revenue figures the way some other major leagues do. They talk a lot about the positive trajectory, the percentage gains, the individual successes like sponsorships and media rights, which is all great information.
But that hard, consolidated number for 2023? It seems like it’s kept closer to the chest. You get ballpark figures, estimates based on known factors, but not an official, easily verifiable number dropped in a public financial statement you can just pull up.
So, my little research project didn’t end with a neat little number I could jot down. It ended with a better understanding that finding that specific figure is harder than I thought. It’s clear the league is doing well and growing fast, based on everything they do share. But the precise overall revenue? That remains a bit fuzzy, at least from the outside looking in. Kind of frustrating, honestly, when you just want a simple answer, but that’s how it is sometimes.
