CHICAGO — Two days after Unrivaled revealed an eye-popping valuation of $340 million, the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league announced Wednesday that it’s expanding.
Unrivaled is adding two new clubs — Breeze BC and Hive BC — bringing the team total to eight for its second season.
The new teams allow Unrivaled to add 12 new roster spots for players, bringing the total number of participating players to 48.
In addition to this, Unrivaled is establishing a season-long development pool of six players, who will serve as relief players when clubs deal with injuries.
With the expansion, Unrivaled will add a fourth night of games and looks to eliminate back-to-backs for this season.
Unrivaled president of basketball Luke Cooper said this expansion is coming a year earlier than expected.
Co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, Unrivaled was created as another avenue for players to stay stateside during the WNBA offseason.
Last season, the league — which is said to offer the highest average salary in professional women’s sports league history — was lauded for its overall player experience, resources and facilities.
This announcement comes on the heels of a round of Series B investment.
Unrivaled has expressed an interest in bringing the WNBA on as a partner, but the legacy league doesn’t seem interested.
Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell recently told Front Office Sports that Unrivaled went to the WNBA “early” in the process during the second-year league’s most recent round of funding.
The hope was to build a partnership similar to the TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League) and PGA. While Unrivaled would be the majority investors in control of the three-on-three league, the WNBA would have “skin in the game with women’s basketball year round,” Bazzell said.
“They chose not to do that,” he added.
In January, Bazzell told Sports Illustrated that Unrivaled has no intention of “trying to be a thorn in the WNBA’s side.”
He believes the two share a common goal of growing the women’s game, and that a partnership between Unrivaled and the WNBA could be mutually beneficial.
“We think we’re very complementary,” Bazzell said in a conversation with Sports Illustrated. “In all honesty, we feel like we’re just kind of finishing their calendar.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
