There is one more piece of Unrivaled’s story that could ultimately matter more to its players than the sellouts, the tour or even their salaries.
They own it.
The league isn’t showing the books, so we don’t know how many players have been offered equity and accepted, or how much was offered, but with a $650 million valuation in just its third year, there is a lot of upside for players. Unrivaled is asking players to help build that value, but it is also giving them a chance to participate in it.
Here is commissioner Micky Lawler’s pitch:
“You'll be able to do what you love, make more money, have equity, meaning you've got skin in the game,” commissioner Micky Lawler said. “You can help yourself, grow this investment, and you can help the collective. But also you can help your own investment in growing this league, in proving to the world that women's basketball is incredibly valuable and you'll come out of this really well prepared for your W season.”
The numbers make the potential clear.
The collective player equity pool is worth $200 million at that August valuation, and co-founder Alex Bazzell told Front Office Sports that 95% of players have taken a compensation package that includes equity. If that pool were divided evenly among an estimated 54 players (unlikely, but this is just an example) the average stake would work out to roughly 0.57% of the company, with an implied paper value of about $3.7 million.
Even substantially smaller stakes could be meaningful.
There are important caveats. A private-company valuation is not cash in the bank. Equity can be diluted, its value can fall, and realizing that value requires some kind of liquidity event. Individual players may also have very different equity arrangements.
But that risk is precisely what makes the Unrivaled model interesting. Women athletes have spent decades helping leagues, teams and media companies build valuable sports properties while largely being compensated for their labor rather than the value they helped create.
Unrivaled is making a different bet: If the players are helping build the asset, they should have the opportunity to own some of it.
If the league’s current trajectory continues, that could turn out to be more than innovative compensation. For some players, it could become genuine, generational wealth.
