After years of apathy, NBA owners suddenly are clamoring to get in on the booming business of the WNBA.
The owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons and Philadelphia 76ers were awarded expansion franchises that will enter the league over the next five years. Houston Rockets ownership is preparing a second bid to bring back the Comets. And Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is attempting to close a purchase to move the Connecticut Sun to Boston.
By 2030, nine of the 18 WNBA teams could be operated by primary NBA owners. That’s in addition to two teams helmed by owners from other major men’s leagues — the Los Angeles Sparks with Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter and the Las Vegas Aces with Raiders owner Mark Davis — and partial NBA stakeholders in the ownership groups for the Sun, Dallas Wings and Toronto Tempo, who begin play next season.
That would leave the Chicago Sky in a rare class of fully independent ownership alongside the Seattle Storm, Atlanta Dream and Portland Fire, another 2026 expansion team.
Could that change in the next five years? And would Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and his son Michael, the team president and CEO, ever consider following the trend?
The Reinsdorfs always have been resistant to WNBA ownership for a simple reason: money.
Jerry Reinsdorf turned down an opportunity for an inaugural WNBA franchise in 1996. At the time, he openly stated he didn’t trust the league to become profitable. Five years later, he somewhat changed his tune.
“We have watched the growth and success of the WNBA with great interest the past five years,” Reinsdorf said in 2001. “The timing for applying for a WNBA franchise wasn’t right previously, but I feel that it may now be.”
But Reinsdorf remained a skeptic. He opened $100 season ticket holder deposits to gauge interest for a potential acquisition of a relocated franchise from Utah or North Carolina — but he also set a minimum of 7,500 deposits for the Bulls to buy in.
It was an unreasonably high bar to meet. The WNBA had averaged 9,074 fans per game in the previous season, most of whom weren’t season ticket holders. The Bulls said they received about 1,000 deposits, so the Reinsdorfs again passed. It took four more years for the league to expand to Chicago when Michael Alter secured an expansion bid in 2005 to begin play in the 2006 season.
Two decades later, the business of the WNBA has changed dramatically. Team revenues have skyrocketed. Media rights deals have soared. Expansion fees are providing fresh paydays for longtime owners. Profitability is still an unattained goal, but women’s basketball is rapidly transforming into an attractive investment opportunity.
In the wake of this expansion, the Bulls and Sky coordinated their first partnership this summer by moving a pair of Sky games against the Indiana Fever to the United Center.
If a Bulls owner was looking for proof of the Sky’s viability in a larger venue, those games provided confidence. Fever star Caitlin Clark didn’t play in either game, and Sky star Angel Reese sat out the second game with a back injury. Despite those absences — which were well-known in advance — the Sky drew more than 19,000 fans to both games.
That might seem like an auspicious start, but there’s a wide chasm between hosting a couple of games and making a full-throated investment in the WNBA.
The Reinsdorfs are about to undergo the most significant rearrangement of their financial investments in four decades. The family struck a deal earlier this year to transfer its controlling interest in the White Sox to billionaire Justin Ishbia by 2034 — and possibly as early as 2029.
The eventual sale will refocus basketball at the center of the family’s sports investments as the Reinsdorfs are expected to retain ownership of the Bulls and the United Center for the foreseeable future. Amid this restructuring, they still haven’t shown any interest in the Sky — privately or publicly.
If not the Reinsdorfs, then who?
For the WNBA’s remaining independent owners, the possibility of a future sale is becoming a question of when — not if. But the path to identifying a potential buyer for the Sky remains unclear.
The Pagliuca bid for the Sun shows that NBA-WNBA co-ownership doesn’t necessarily require a bid from a primary NBA owner. The Bulls have a notable collection of minority owners that includes the Hunt family, owner of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, and billionaire Neil Bluhm, but this group has remained similarly taciturn about a potential WNBA investment.
Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts did invest in the team in 2023, but only as one member of a six-woman investment group that collectively purchased a 10% stake.
For now, this vacuum of interest leaves the Sky in a precarious position as an independently owned team attempting to keep up in a league soon to be dominated by billionaires. Deep pockets are now a necessity in the WNBA — and for any potential investor wishing to make a bid for a team.
When Alter brought the Sky to Chicago, the reported expansion fee was $10 million. Two decades later, the league’s minimum expansion fee has ballooned to $250 million. Pagliuca offered $325 million for the Sun, an indication of the potential payday that looms if and when Alter is ready to hear offers.
The Sky might carry a lower valuation than other WNBA franchises because of their lack of real estate holdings — they don’t own their arena or have a stake in their new training facility, scheduled to open next spring — but the market and brand hold significant weight. Earlier this year, Forbes estimated the Sky’s value at $240 million.
The price of the team has gone up. How long it takes for new investors — in Chicago or elsewhere — to match that number will define the future of the franchise.
