Unrivaled women's basketball league's long-awaited unveiling is here

MIAMI — Unrivaled’s venue — located six miles northwest of Miami International Airport — was buzzing.

Around every corner of the 850-seat arena, home to the new 3-on-3 league for the next three months, someone was making final touches — setting up merchandise space and fan-engagement zones — before opening night on Friday.

The last-minute liveliness was a direct reflection of the league itself: an unprecedented opportunity for the WNBA’s biggest stars to develop stateside. Unrivaled isn’t mirroring any league that has come before, including the league from which all of its players hail. It is developing a new standard from scratch.

“This building was just a blank slate,” Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier said. “You see all these white walls, everything was like that. It was just an empty building.”

Not anymore. Tiles that once blanketed the floor have been replaced by hardwood. State-of-the-art training equipment was brought in for the weight room, and multiple recovery spaces were built, including two different kinds of saunas, helping transform the once-empty 130,000 square-foot space into an all-encompassing training oasis available to players 24 hours a day.

Wayfair Arena, the name given after the league announced a multiyear naming-rights partnership with the retailer, also includes a content studio and a courtside club for fans. The cheapest tickets available on Ticketmaster on Thursday evening for the league’s inaugural game were selling for $441.

The six-team league featuring 36 of the WNBA’s top players tips off Friday night with a doubleheader. The night’s first game features co-founder Breanna Stewart’s Mist Basketball Club against Collier’s Lunar Owls. The finale is between Sky star Angel Reese’s team, Rose BC, and her former coach Teresa Weatherspoon’s Vinyl BC.

Unrivaled is the second domestic league offered to players after Athletes Unlimited debuted in 2022, but they have little in common, starting with salary. Unrivaled’s average salary is $222,222, exceeding the WNBA’s regular max in 2024 by $14,003.

Also different: the rules.

Unrivaled will be played on a condensed 49.2-by-72-foot court. The format will include three seven-minute quarters and a fourth quarter that decides the game by adding 11 points to the leading team’s score through the first 21 minutes. This “winning score” quarter, as the league is calling it, eliminates overtime. For example if the score at the end of the third quarter is 56-39, the first team to 67 wins.

The league’s foul rules are also unique. While players will foul out after reaching their sixth foul as in the WNBA, players can remain in the game under some circumstances. If, for example, a team is down to three players and one of those three picks up her sixth foul, she can remain in the game but will earn a tech for each additional foul committed. Players will shoot only one free throw, worth two points, if fouled on a two-point field goal or three on a three-point attempt.

The league will also feature a midseason 1-on-1 single-elimination tournament. The tournament, which runs from Feb. 10-14, comes with a $250,000 prize and an additional $10,000 to each of the winners’ teammates.

On Thursday, the mood amongst players was light. At this point, everyone was still enjoying having one of the best all-around opportunities to stay stateside they have yet to encounter as pros.

“Can we get some music?” Stewart yelled to her team just as a GloRilla song swelled through the speakers on the court.

For one more day, expectations for the league and its players were still ambiguous enough that a competitive edge had not yet set in.

“Success, we’ve already accomplished that,” Collier said. “Even though we haven’t played a game yet, the response we’ve had and the ecosystem that we’re affecting without playing a game. Salaries are going up across the board, overseas and in other domestic leagues. We have our CBA negotiations. From that, we feel successful already.”